Nightmarish Shackles of Memory That Binds
by Sound Slayer
Summary: One year after KH2, Sora is living peacefully in Destiny Islands with his lover Riku. But the nightmares of his Nobody enemies keep on coming back. Just what do you think happens when both become trapped in the world of dreams. Written in cutscenes SoRiku
1. Trapped in Your Nightmares

_Okay. I definitely gave up "The Nobody That Never Was" because I am so eager to start this one while the visions are still fresh in my head._

_Basically, the story is happens one year after the events of Kingdom Hearts II. I will be providing narrations at the beginning of each chapter since they will all be cutscenes instead of full chapters. And battles with the enemies will be skipped and I'll only be telling you if Sora won or not._

_One more thing, I do not own Kingdom Hearts._

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**Narration:** It has been a year since Sora has vanquished the entire Organization XIII. He is now back in Destiny Islands with his friends Kairi and Riku. But recently, he has been having nightmares. Nightmares that seem to be growing stronger each day. Nightmares about certain Nobodies; some of them he met, some he hadn't.

Then one night he succumbs to a nightmare. A nightmare which also takes Riku since Sora has been sleeping with Riku for the past few nights to lessen the anxiety the dreams were causing him. A nightmare that might bring their worst enemies to life. A nightmare they might never wake up from… ever again.

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"Where am I?"

Sora gets up on his feet. In front of him is a magnificent castle of blue, gray and white. Surrounding it is a dense forest. And he himself is standing in front of the entrance.

"Is this a dream?"

He takes a step. Then, another. And then another.

Finding no reason to feel that the place is a trap, he walks right into the castle and enters the hallway. Upon getting there, he hears somebody chuckling. He looks around.

Nobody there…

But the chuckling persists.

"Nice to see you again, Sora!" a blonde woman appears a few feet away from him.

"Larxene…"

"How nice of you to remember my name." Larxene laughs.

"Where am I? And what have you done to me?"

"You? You're sleeping, silly. And what I've done to you? Nothing… yet."

"But I thought I already defeated you in the castle."

Larxene's smile vanishes. For a moment, she seems like she wants to hit him. But then, she giggles. "I know. You did. But as I've told you, you're sleeping. And what you are looking at now is a memory of me. However… your memory of me was so strong that it gave me life in your mind."

She laughs again.

"What do you mean?"

"Sora, Sora, Sora… you just don't get it, do you? Remembering us so powerfully made us exist… although only in your mind."

"Well… what do you want from me?"

"It's not I but we. We want… to settle a score and have our bodies back."

"Who is 'we'?"

Larxene wags her finger at him. "I'm not just going to tell you. You have to find it out yourself. "

"Why are you doing this to me then?"

"Well, you see if we do defeat you right now in your mind. We will then be able to come back into the real world… through your heart. How does that sound? Fun, right? I know it would kill me to tell you this but… I guess I can live with that." Larxene laughs again.

She continues, "Well, your boyfriend Riku is upstairs held captive by some people."

Sora clenches his fists. "Let me guess, you're one of the bad guys?"

"Not quite." She runs up close to Sora so fast that she actually seems to disappear.

Now just three inches away from his face, she tells him, "More like the mastermind really with my three other friends. Friends in the sense that they were one of the powerful memories of all the members you and Riku have encountered. And know what? We're just dying to experiment all the new stuff we came up with."

He takes out his keyblade and tries to attack Larxene.

However, Larxene easily sidesteps, slaps Sora on both cheeks with her right hand, punches him with her left and kicks him forcefully, sending him flying a few meters away.

"Oh, looks like the baby got mad," she says mockingly.

Sora gets up once again.

"Well then, if you're not a baby, prove it. Go up to the eleventh floor of this castle and face each one of us. And since this place is in your memory, you have access to cards." Larxene throws him a deck of cards.

"You don't need to thank me… really," she says with a wave before teleporting away. "Heal yourself while you can. Ta-ta!"

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_Looks like this will be one heck of a visit to Memory Lane. A deadly one, that is. Please leave a review for me. Thanks._


	2. Four Times the Reunion

_Here's the second chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it._

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**Narration: **Taking the woman's advice, Sora walks around the castle, fighting Heartless and Nobodies alike. As well as collecting cards to refill the ones Larxene has provided him.

Meanwhile, on the eleventh floor, two hooded figures are sitting on a couch, sipping some tea. Then, Larxene appears.

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"I'm back. And yeah, the idiot is taking the bait!"

"Good work, Larxene. Here have some tea." One of the figures offers her a cup.

"Thanks." Larxene takes a sip. "Where's Zexion?"

The other figure points at a nearby door, which is colored black and has several locks on it, and answers her, "He's torturing our prisoner."

"May I join?" Larxene asks.

"No, Larxene. Leave Zexion be. Besides, it's not physical pain he's inflicting on the child. It's worst kind of pain ever to be inflicted. Psychological pain." The first figure puts down his hood, revealing his pink hair.

"Yeah. " The other one agrees and places his hood down as well. "Besides, poor Zexion wasn't able to break the kid's heart and spirit in his trap at Destiny Islands. Instead, he lost and was subsequently murdered by the traitor."

"Right… so how will breaking his spirit be helping us, Marluxia?" Larxene asks.

"You'll see. I got this all figured out. Sora better watch out the next time he sees his boyfriend."

"Speaking of the traitor… did you guys lock him up?" the woman takes another sip of her tea.

"Of course, Larxene. We made Lexaeus and Xemnas do it," Marluxia replies. "He's now down there in the basement. And we made that stupid pathetic Nobody of a hero take care of him."

"Umm… guys? Who will we be sending first to confront our visitor? Vexen?" the third companion interrupts.

"Sure. Go ahead. Send him to fight with that brat," Larxene retorts. "Just don't expect him to win."

The third one then goes off to instruct Vexen what to do.

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The redhead is sleeping on the floor. Beside him is a tray of food which he had for dinner.

"Wake up, Axel! Wake up!"

The brunette does not stir or move. He continues to sleep.

"I SAID 'WAKE UP', YOU PIECE OF TRASH!"

Immediately, Axel is woken up and sits up straight. He rubs his eyes a bit and looks at whoever was calling to him.

"We hadn't had a chat since we last met. Not that I could because I was already dead… thanks to you," the person says sarcastically.

Axel stands up and walks over to the bars of his cell.

"What do you want?" he asks.

"Oh nothing… except the answers on why you used Namine to betray us!"

He does not answer.

"Well, you put up a really convincing act, Axel. I'm impressed. I guess you learned it from Marluxia and me."

After yet a moment of silence, she is infuriated.

"So you're giving me the silent treatment. That's not going to help you. In Sora's mind, we don't need Namine to manipulate his memories. All we need to do is just crush him from the inside out."

"Where's Roxas?" That is all the redhead can say.

"Roxas? Roxas? Hmmm… I don't know. Well, he certainly is better than you, you selfish two-faced unethical liar." She gives a mocking laugh. "After you made me go down, I realized that then the Organization will fall apart as long as you continued to exist. Unsurprisingly, it did."

"But didn't you hate Zexion and the others?"

"That was before…. Now, Demyx, Zexion, Marluxia and I have settled our differences so we can take Sora down once and for all. And we'll be using every other member as our pawns."

"What are you saying?"

"Curious one, are you? Well, let me tell you something, Axel. You may be the strongest memory Sora had from all of us. But the four of us can bring you to pieces if we wanted to right now… but it's just that we have to dispose of Sora first. Then you." Larxene laughs.

"Well… are you going to spare Roxas?"

"That depends, Axel. That depends. See you. I don't want to miss the show Vexen's going to put on." Larxene then disappears.

"Please spare Roxas…" the redhead mumbles.

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"Great… I don't have any companions but myself. If Goofy and Donald were here, this would have been a lot easier. And so far, I have already used two Cure cards. I don't know where I can find more of these."

Sora makes a left upon reaching the end of the hallway.

"Great more enemies to beat up," he grumbles as several Shadow Heartless drop down from the ceiling.

He defeats several of them before a huge storm of icicles strike down the rest of the Heartless. Sora covers his face with his arm as a gale of icy-cold wind brews.

After it dies down, Sora opens his eyes to see a long-haired Nobody with a shield facing him. Immediately, the Nobody teleports both himself and Sora into a large circular room.

"Remember me, Sora? We met before at Twilight Town."

"Vexen." Sora points finger at him. "You're the one who made the Riku Replica in Castle Oblivion. You're the one who tried to make a fool out of my best friend. And you're working with Larxene this time to get your bodies back?"

Suddenly, the sound of giggling and laughing can be heard, echoing throughout the arena.

"What's the matter with you two? Can't you trust me on this for once?" Vexen addresses to the two voices. "I can beat him this time. I'm sure of it."

"Oh fine, Vexen… if you insist. But we're going to give you at least two tries to get rid of Sora. If you don't, try not to show yourself to us. Got it?" a feminine voice says.

"Totally because if you do come back to us we are going to play you your requiem. And I'm working on it now," the other voice says. "See you… if you ever win!"

"Look what you made them think of me." Vexen looks angrily at Sora. "You made them think that I am a loser. A no good loser. But I am stronger now."

"How so? I've defeated you twice before. I can beat you again."

"Easy, Sora. Since we live in your mind, we have access to every single trick up your sleeve you have. We know all your techniques, your tactics, your skills, even your weaknesses."

"Well, guess again. There's so much more that I have yet to show you, Vexen."

"We'll see about that." Vexen readies his shield and enters his battle stance.

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_Now that's it for this update. Cool, isn't it? Fighting in your mind. Please leave a review for me._


	3. The Torture Begins Bit by Bit

_Here's Chapter Three. Wow, thanks so much for reviewing guys. Love it! I'm sorry if I made Demyx "unveil his real self" and made Zexion reveal "his inner Larxene". Anyway, do enjoy!_

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**Narration: **While Sora is engaging Vexen in combat, Larxene, Marluxia and Demyx are having a quick chat in the eleventh floor. And Zexion is finishing up with the final moments of breaking down Riku.

Soon enough, Zexion appears and joins in with their conversation.

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"You run from who you are because you are scared."

Riku falls onto his knees.

"You would willingly embrace darkness so you could be more powerful than your rival. Now how can you say you're any different from us?"

Riku looks at his torturer and tries to say something.

He mutters, "I-I… I am with both Darkness and Light."

He stands up. "I have them both within me."

"Within you? What an impossible jest!" Zexion laughs. "Are you sure they're still with you? Are you sure that… you are not abandoned by them?"

Riku is losing all his confidence and strength.

Zexion merely chuckles. "Why, dear boy? Is it so hard to face the truth? The truth that you-" he points at Riku "-are just like us. Forsaken by both the Light and the Darkness. Dreaded by both and avoided by both."

Riku puts his hands on his head. "No! This isn't real."

"But it is, Riku. All too real. Real enough in every possible way to hurt you!" Zexion kicks Riku, sending him a few meters away.

Riku tries to get up but fails.

"What's the matter? I thought you were stronger than Sora? Isn't that what you always wanted? To be stronger… than your boyfriend?"

Zexion looks at the boy struggling from his painful words. "You're even more pathetic now than the last time we fought, child."

He kicks the boy again.

This time it seems that Riku has passed out.

"That was… boring. Oh well, it was rather fun." Zexion leaves Riku lying on the floor as he disappears into a Corridor of Darkness.

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"Soooo…. Zexion! How did it go?" Demyx greets his companion.

"Satisfying if you asked me." He sits down on the couch beside Demyx and faces Larxene and Marluxia.

"Excellent work, my friend. Now then, where were we? Ah, right! Watching Vexen," the female companion says.

The four then look into the crystal ball which is in the middle of the circular space resulting from the arrangement of the sofas around it.

-Viewing Starts-

"Take this!" Sora swings his keyblade.

Vexen puts up his shield which effectively blocks Sora's attack.

The second strike follows and this time the force knocks Vexen over backwards.

"You have indeed developed skills which we have not seen yet, young one. I'm impressed that you have even outsmarted my superior intellect," Vexen congratulates him.

"However… I'll be back. And this time with some presents. Christmas will be coming early this year!" Vexen laughs maniacally before teleporting himself away.

-Viewing Stops-

"I told you not to send him down there," Zexion complains.

"Be patient, Zexion. Our hero is still not even halfway to what we want him to suffer from." Marluxia grins.

"Oh, well… what do we do with the stupid boy then?" Larxene asks.

"Just make him cooperate with us…."

Larxene stands up and is about to enter the room Zexion has just come from.

Marluxia stops Larxene and finishes his sentence, "After he gets a little rest."

"Fine." Larxene sits back on the couch with Marluxia.

"Oooohhhh. Can I have my fun next?" Demyx asks. "Larxene had her fun at the entrance and Vexen just now. Can I at least meet the kiddo?"

"Sure, Demyx. Here have this." Marluxia tosses some cards at him.

"But these are Cure cards."

"Yeah, I know. We wouldn't want our pet to die just yet, right? Besides, don't you think he hasn't suffered enough?" Marluxia asks Demyx.

"Oh, I get what you're saying. You want him to kill all the other members but us. Then, we eliminate him together."

"Umm… something in the lines of that. Now go! You wanted to have some fun, right?"

Then, Demyx summons his sitar and teleports himself without further ado so he can face Sora.

Larxene then looks at Zexion. "Now who should we send to Sora next?" She starts to think.

Marluxia and Zexion wait for her say.

Suddenly, Larxene gets an idea. "I know. Why don't we send that silly black-eyed pirate to the brat?"

"I think the proper term is 'blind in one eye'," Zexion corrects her.

"Whatever. That doesn't make a difference… well, I'm going to get him." She then opens up a Corridor of Darkness and walks into it. "See you guys around!"

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Vexen is fixing up something in his laboratory. Unexpectedly, he hears the sound of teleporting near him.

"What are you doing here, Vexen? I thought you promised us that you'd take care of Sora!"

The scientist turns around to see an instrument-wielding Nobody.

"Please don't kill me, Demyx! Please!" Vexen pleads.

"Don't worry, Vexen. I won't kill you. I just came by to see what you are going to be doing next," Demyx reassures his shaken accomplice.

Vexen walks over to a table of his apparatus and says, "Well, since we are in Sora's mind. We have access to all his memories."

"True, true."

"So I'm guessing, if he can easily get into fights with us because we are just enemies to his eyes, then I should start making replicas out of the memories of his friends. And then, we shall brainwash them into attacking Sora."

"Is that going to work for us or against us? You know, your replica projects before went totally out of control. The Riku Replica and Xion?"

"Silence, you!"

Demyx laughs. "Silence me? Just be careful of what you're saying because if not I am going to see your lifeless cold body floating in an aquarium."

Vexen is dumbfounded and at the same time shocked.

Then, Demyx disappears into a Corridor.

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_So, how's that for a next update? Let's see what Demyx is going to say to Sora! Do leave a review for me. Thanks._


	4. Pulling the Strings

_Wow. Thanks again for the reviews. The evil part is just all too easy so don't ask why I typed it quickly. Really! The hard part was thinking about what Sora would want to say… because he's just too good. Too good… ehehehe. Anyways, enough chitchat and here's the next update._

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**Narration:** After seeing Vexen flees, Sora is stranded in the circular room until a portal appears before him and warps into yet another room. And upon getting there, he is confronted by Demyx.

Meanwhile, Larxene sets off to another room on the eleventh floor.

On the other hand, Vexen has completed the first five of his new replica projects.

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"Ran away again? Typical…. I told him he couldn't beat me. Not in the real world. And definitely not in my mind."

Unexpectedly, a portal appears before Sora and warps him into another room. Identical to the one he had been to except that this one has a door.

"Don't you think you're getting too cocky?" a voice asks Sora.

Sora looks around and sees a familiar enemy he faced in Hollow Bastion. "You again?"

"Why not? I thought it would be fun seeing you again! Enjoying your visit to the castle? I think it looks a little bit different than you remembered before though. We kind of made a few adjustments here and there."

"So that's why it looks like a weird combination of Castle Oblivion and The Castle That Never Was. But if you are all just my memories, how can you modify something from what I remember into what I don't?"

"Easy! We're slowly taking control of your mind." Demyx smiles at Sora. "By the way, did you know we give our guests here the most soothing of accommodations?"

"Enough with the games. I know you are one of Larxene and her friends' minions. Where's Riku?"

Demyx merely says, "Now that's just plain rude. Where are your manners? Don't judge me by what I do. And Riku? Who's that? I don't know anyone by that name. Such a stupid-sounding name, if you asked me."

"Don't play dumb with me, Demyx! I know you're working for Larxene!"

"Who said 'working for'…" Demyx summons up his sitar "-when I'm actually working with her!"

He then hits Sora with a powerful jet of water, making the latter crash into the wall.

"Loved that? Well, the dance has just yet to begin, Sora!" Demyx laughs and then summons several water forms around him. "Dance, water! Dance!"

"If I could beat Vexen, I can beat you!" Sora takes out his keyblade. He runs toward the music-loving Nobody and attacks.

"Hit me with your best shot!"

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Larxene appears into a room with thirteen chairs. Seven of them are occupied by figures wearing the exact same cloak and attire as she is.

"I'm back, you guys! Missed me?" she asks. "And I'm now going to select a lucky Nobody to face and hopefully vanquish Sora!"

Suddenly, one of the figures snaps at her, "Who are you to command us what to do?"

She merely looks at him.

And then a pink-haired man appears alongside her, saying, "If you're not going to cooperate with us, fine… have it your way because we will wipe you out from your wretched existence in this plane and you shall be forgotten forever."

"Marluxia… so it's you who is behind this!"

"You should know when to silence yourself, Xemnas. We're the dominant memories of the Organization here, making us more powerful than the rest of you in here. Defying us will result in your annihilation."

"Besides, wasn't it us who gave you guys life in this dreary world, right here?" Larxene adds. "You should at least give us some gratitude."

"I am not going to…" Xemnas stops midway of his sentence as the blade of Marluxia's scythe is now directly poised to slash his throat.

All the other members gasp at this.

Then, Marluxia disperses his weapon. "Next time you won't be so lucky."

Larxene walks around the room, eyeing each member carefully. After a few seconds have passed, she goes over to the man with an eye-patch.

"Xigbar! It's your turn. Have a blast with Sora. But if you don't defeat him and yet come back here, I'll see to it that you get the most excruciating death imaginable."

"Yes, madam." Xigbar bows slightly to Larxene although unwillingly. He then gets up and stands beside her.

"Now, the rest of you, do you all know what is our goal right now?" She looks at Xemnas, Xaldin, Lexaeus, Saix, Luxord and Roxas.

Everyone shouts, "To reclaim our bodies!"

"And how are we going to do that?"

"By destroying Sora!"

"Very good." Larxene claps her hands. She then turns to Xigbar. "So what are you waiting for? Sora's not just going to kill himself by jumping off the balcony of this castle, you know."

"I know," Xigbar says, a little irritated of Larxene already, and teleports himself.

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"A-HA! At last, they are complete!" Vexen exclaims to the five silhouetted figures standing in front of him.

"Bravo! Bravo! I hope you know what you are doing," the blue-haired Nobody says as he appears behind Vexen. "Are you sure these will take care of Sora?"

"I am sure of it, Zexion. Sora still has a heart, doesn't he? Of course, he wouldn't want to 'kill' his friends. Ot at least t he replicas of his friends."

"Just make sure they get the job done. Or else, we're going to take desperate measures."

"Desperate measures?" Vexen repeats. "Zexion, wait!"

Then, Zexion waves goodbye to Vexen before teleporting away.

"I must be wary of their plans," Vexen says to himself. "I cannot afford to be duped again."

He turns to his creations and commands, "Find Sora and get rid of him… permanently."

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_Okay, so that's it for this update. I would really love to write the boss battles but I just don't want to. Besides, don't you want to imagine how the fights will go in your head? Anyways, tune in for the next update. Please leave a review for me._


	5. Not Good Enough

_Here's the fifth update. Enjoy! I'm guessing you're all curious about what happens now, don't you? Well, read on and find out._

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**Narration: **Xigbar is now roaming around the castle looking for Sora because Larxene did not to tell him Sora's current whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Demyx is just about to wrap up his fight with Sora.

And as Demyx returns back to Zexion, Larxene and Marluxia, Riku wakes up from his fainting.

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The man with an eye-patch is walking through the endless corridors of the castle, looking for the keyblade-wielder.

He has been walking around for more than an hour now and he still hasn't found the snotty-nosed kid.

"Where is he?"

His voice merely echoes back to him.

"Why did I have to be working for those four crazed-brains? They're so obsessed with taking over everything. From the real world to Sora's mind…"

Xigbar then stops and sees a couch. He goes over to it and attempts to take a break from finding Sora.

"Exterminating him will have to wait. Besides, I don't need to take their orders. I can think for myself."

After reclining on the couch, he tells himself, "Just a quick snooze and that will be it. Then, I'll go find Sora as soon as I wake up."

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Sora smashes the last of Demyx's water forms.

And as the last drops of water fall on the floor, he charges at the musician himself.

However, he misses at the last minute because Demyx warps himself at the right end of the room.

"You're looking exhausted. I'm hardly even warmed up yet." He chuckles.

"Where's Riku?" Sora asks, panting from his fight with Demyx.

"Silver-haired boy? Teenager like you? Umm… maybe he's upstairs. I'll go and check."

"I said enough with the games, Demyx! Tell me where Riku is?" Sora demands.

"Now that's not very nice… considering we're even going to letting you stay here for two to three nights. Is that any way to treat your generous hosts?" Demyx teases Sora.

"You're not generous!"

"Okay… then I guess I'll have to leave you wondering where your boyfriend is then. See ya!" Demyx turns his back on Sora.

But before he can teleport away, Sora runs up to him and hits him with the keyblade.

Much to Sora's disappointment, that Demyx turns out to be a clone. The real one surfaces behind him and whacks him with the sitar, making Sora fall on his back.

He bends over to look at Sora's face. "You nearly had me there, didn't you? Too bad… you weren't quick enough."

Sora's eyelids begin to close from fatigue.

"Have a rest then. You'll be needing these." He feels Demyx drop a pair of cards on his chest before his eyes finally close from exhaustion.

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"_Sora! Sora!"_

_Sora feels a voice calling to him._

_He opens his eyes._

_It's Kairi._

"_You were waiting for me here? I told you that my dad sent me on an errand, you silly boy." Kairi pats Sora's head._

_Sora sits up. He had fallen asleep waiting for Kairi in the Secret Place. But now that she's here. He wants to tell her something._

"_Kairi?"_

"_Yes, Sora?"_

"_What does Riku like? For Valentine's?"_

"_You're going to give him a Valentine's gift."_

"_Umm… yeah." Sora blushes._

"_You really like him, don't you?"_

_Sora blushes again._

"_Well, don't worry I'll help you." Kairi takes Sora's hand. "Of all the things Riku would like to receive, what he really wants is the genuine love from the one who loves him."_

"_Okay… so how am I going to do that?"_

"_Flowers and a card! Duh!" Kairi playfully knocks Sora's head._

"_Oh. Okay!" Sora then goes out for a while._

_Minutes later, he comes back with a neatly-arranged bouquet and a card._

"_What about this?" He hands them over to Kairi._

_Kairi reads the card and smiles. "I think it's good. And those flowers? He's bound to like them."_

_Then, Sora runs off._

"_Hey! And before you forget, a kiss on his cheek too!" Kairi shouts._

Abruptly, Sora wakes up from the dream. He finds himself on a bed in a boringly-colored white room.

"It was a dream?" Sora wonders. He looks around quite a bit.

"No! I'm still here. And so is Riku! I got to find him!" He climbs out of the bed.

Upon getting off the bed, he finds two Cure cards on the floor. He picks them up and puts them in his pocket. He then looks for the door and gets out.

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"He was tired? From fighting with you?"

"Yep. He was. He even passed out after I hit him with my sitar, Larxene."

She then laughs. "Although he has improved, he has indeed grown weak… in a way."

"That's because it is we who are getting stronger in his mind," Marluxia says as he warps into the room.

Larxene and Demyx look at Marluxia and wave at him.

He positions himself beside Larxene. "Where's Zexion?"

"Oh. He just went to see the traitor," Larxene says indifferently.

"Who's crying for Roxas!" Demyx says mockingly of Axel's behavior.

Larxene laughs again.

Zexion then appears and walks over to Demyx. "I'm back. You were looking for me?"

"Nope, Marluxia was." Demyx points at the pink-haired Nobody.

"You know… the four of us would have been better leaders of the Organization. I wonder why we never thought of this the first place. But then again, it was easier to take control of it here than in the real world. Is it not?" Marluxia addresses to his comrades.

"I suppose so…" Demyx replies.

"Well, it has been easier to overthrow Xemnas here since both Roxas and Sora didn't see any significance to recall Xemnas. Making that 'Superior' weaker in this kind of existence. Only the four of us were powerful enough to gain our full strength and complete powers back… that includes the traitor though," Zexion says.

"That's a good point," Larxene tells Zexion.

"Anyway…" Marluxia stops his sentence. He turns around and sees the door of the room where they kept Riku has opened. Larxene, Demyx and Zexion notice it as well.

Riku then comes out and shouts at them. "So it's you four who's been giving Sora nightmares?"

Marluxia looks at Zexion. "I thought you already dealt with this one?"

Before Zexion can answer, Larxene screams, "Let me deal with this one! This is going to be fun. I haven't had fun in ages."

She then jumps in front of Riku. "Come on, Sora's boyfriend! Show me what you're really made of. I hope you don't disappoint me!"

She giggles and summons her knives.

"I'll see to it that you just made a fatal mistake." Riku draws out the Soul Eater.

"Wow! You're awfully sounding ready to fight. But words are useless here. Besides, you're just another baby! I can tell!"

Riku lunges at Larxene who easily teleports away from his strike.

She reappears a few feet behind him, "So that's what you want! Okay then. Just make sure you can take more than one blow from me."

"Just don't kill him, Larxene," Marluxia reminds her just in case she is going to get carried away.

"Don't worry. I won't." Then she faces Riku. "Let's go and see who made the fatal mistake to side with Sora!" She smiles before engaging Riku in a battle.

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_That's it for this update. Do review and tell me what you think of it._


	6. What Else Is Happening?

_Love the review, guys. Must mean, I'm getting better, right? Haha. Anyways, here's another update to the fans out there who are reading the story. I definitely gave up my other story and deleted it for this, you know. Have a happy reading._

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**Narration: **Sora is now fighting some more enemies in the castle.

Xigbar, on the other hand, is looking for Sora.

And where are the replicas? Can Riku beat Larxene? So many questions yet… so little answers.

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He has just finished another wave of Heartless and uses up one of Demyx's Cure cards. He is about to continue with his venturing in the castle when he hears cries for help.

"Help us! Help us!"

Sora hears two female voices shouting for help.

It seems to be coming just from a nearby door. He looks at the six doors near him. Four on his left and three on his right.

"Help! Somebody please!" the first voice pleads again.

"No! Please don't kill us! Mercy please!" the other voice begs.

Sora wastes no time and makes a guess. He kicks open the farthest door on the left.

No one…

"Okay… must be this," he says to himself and he kicks the other door on the right open.

He finds what looks like a huge Behemoth attacking Namine and Kairi. At least that's what he thinks it looks like.

"Hold on, you two! I'm coming!"

The monster looks at Sora and stops terrorizing the two girls. He then charges at the keyblade-wielder.

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"What? I cannot be beaten. Not in this realm. No possible way." Larxene staggers as she grips her left arm.

"That's right. Now time to finish this." Riku charges at Larxene.

Much to his surprise, Larxene easily sidesteps and kicks Riku twice. The first one lands on his face and the second one sends him careening on the floor.

"I was just joking, you idiot!" She laughs. "You are one of the most predictable guys… next to Sora. Not surprisingly, really. Both are babies and both are in love."

She giggles. "It would have been cute… if it weren't so pathetic!"

Riku pushes himself up to his feet.

"You still want another round? Fine, I'll give it to you." Larxene resumes her battle stance. "More pain for you means more fun for me!"

But then, Marluxia raises his hand. "He is an imbecile, Larxene. Don't waste your energy on him. Allow me to deliver the excruciating defeat he has ever met from all of his opponents."

He looks at Riku. "You've never seen me before in combat, right? Although your replica has, I doubt you'll ever come to beat me."

A swirl of rose petals surrounds Marluxia as he summons his scythe.

"Get ready, human! You are about to drown in the abysmal pit of despair!" Marluxia smiles while flourishing his weapon.

"I'm not scared of you," Riku cries out defiantly and charges at Marluxia with the Soul Eater.

"Then, we shall see… who the real coward is!" Marluxia parries Riku's strike and kicks the boy in the stomach.

"Go, go, Marluxia!" Demyx cheers on from the sidelines. "Go, Marluxia! You can do it! Riku is going down!"

"What a bore… this kid really thinks he can win here." Zexion places his face on his palm.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Back in the room where the four are keeping the rest of the Organization members, Vexen and Xemnas strike up a conversation.

"Superior, I have gone on with their plans as you told me to."

"Excellent work, Vexen."

"Of course, Superior. I am not going to allow myself to serve those two backbiting amateurs and that traitor Zexion. As well as that irrational idiot who dances with water."

"I see where your true loyalty lies, Vexen. I'm impressed. Now then, what have gotten so far."

"I have made five replicas. Four of which are just mere puppets for the amusement of those four. The last one is our trump card and I am sure that we'll be able to use it when the time is right."

"Okay, Vexen."

"Any luck with trying to get the others to our side?"

"None. So far, I think Roxas might if we had to resort to freeing Axel."

"Axel? That two-timing son of a-"

"Now's not the time to be picky with our allies. We must either get comrades or face them with none."

"You have a point there, Superior. But what about Saix?"

"I don't know. But it seems to me that Larxene and Demyx have turned him into their fellow guard dog on us."

"I see. Luxord, Lexaeus and Xaldin?"

"Luxord is taking his chances following Marluxia's orders. Xaldin? Maybe. He's thinking about my offer. Lexaeus? He mostly keeps to himself."

"Okay. So where's Roxas?"

"Just sent to the dungeon where they keep Axel. It's inaccessible normally but only by the means of the Corridor."

"Superior, I have also found out that these four… they are slowly being able to manipulate everything in Sora's memories. Our powers, they have placed a limit on them. I cannot use my powers at full strength if I wanted to. Only when they send me to fight against Sora."

"All right."

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Roxas enters with a tray of food for Axel.

He passes it under the bars.

He watches the redhead eagerly eat the food.

"Axel?"

The redhead stops eating. "Yes, Roxas?"

"I was wondering… why are you locked up in this dreary place? Have you done something wrong?"

"I did terrible things, Roxas. Terrible things. So terrible that you wouldn't imagine me even doing them."

The blonde-haired Nobody goes to the bars of Axel's cell. "It's okay, Axel. I understand. You're not the type of person who just goes doing things because you felt like it or someone ordered you to. You must have had a reason, right?"

Axel just falls back into silence.

"It's okay, buddy. I understand." Roxas watches his best friend chow down on the rest of the food.

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_That's it for this update. I hope you liked it. I wonder when's Zexion going to fight? Do leave a review for me. Thanks._


	7. Fading a Memory

_Here's another update. And yeah, I really want to do this story while the visions are fresh or else I'll lose them. Hehe. Anyways, here it goes. Enjoy!_

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**Narration: **Sora has felled the Behemoth that was attacking Namine and Kairi after a grueling battle. He then goes with the two girls out of the room.

Meanwhile, Marluxia is taking care of Riku as Larxene, Demyx and Zexion await the completely predictable outcome of the battle.

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"And that was… that!" Sora slices through the gargantuan monster and finally slays it.

It falls onto the floor and slowly disappears into nothingness. Then, something strange happens to Sora's mind after defeating it.

It is as if he does not recognize what the thing was anymore. It is as if it was erased from his memory.

Namine and Kairi jump into his arms.

"Thank you, Sora!" they shout in unison.

Sora points at the slowly disintegrating monster and asks, "What's that?"

"What's that? That's the Behemoth that was attacking us, remember?" Kairi answers.

"I know something was attacking you guys but… I don't remember something."

"Oh, right. Kairi, Sora just lost his memory of the Behemoth as he technically erased it from his mind by defeating it," Namine explains.

"Right…" Kairi looks at her other.

"What? You mean each time I defeat somebody or something here they disappear from my memory for real?" Sora's eyes widen in surprise.

"I guess that's how it works here. Come on. You want to wake up from this dream, right?" Namine asks as she heads for the door.

"Okay… but if you two are attacked then…"

"We'll be erased from your mind. But don't worry, you'll look after us, right?" Kairi finishes Sora's sentence for him.

Sora nods.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Kairi runs after Namine.

"What about Riku?" Sora calls out to the girls.

"We'll meet him on the way, promise!" Namine answers.

And then, Sora runs after them and into the hallway once more.

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"Ugh!" Marluxia looks away from Riku in disgust.

The boy is sprawling on the floor. Too weak to fight yet he persists in doing so.

"Get up, loser!" Larxene yells mockingly from the side.

She then makes a face. "Don't be such a baby and fight! Come on… don't be such a killjoy!"

Riku struggles to stand up. He does so, however, with the use of his Soul Eater.

He charges once more at Marluxia who easily blocks his attack and grabs him by the collar.

"You don't really know when to give up, do you? You are such a worthless creature. Siding with Sora? Why don't you side with us? You'll gain more power and even better you'll gain something that Sora has never showed to you before!" Marluxia tells him.

Riku tries to get out of Marluxia's grip.

"No point in struggling… you are too weak at this moment. Do you want Zexion to shatter your mind again into little fragments like broken glass?"

"Let me go."

"Help yourself then!" Marluxia throws him to the wall. "We'll be waiting for your answer."

Riku is on his knees. His two arms trying to push himself up but he can't. "I'll… never… betray… Sora."

Larxene seems amused by the mention of this.

"Betray Sora? But Riku… I think he has already betrayed you." She laughs.

Demyx looks at Larxene. "You got that right." He then turns to face Riku, "Your little boyfriend has a little something that he has never told you before, now did he?"

Riku then gets up and runs out of the room.

Larxene tries to go after him.

"No, Larxene. Leave him. He'll come to us for answers anyway. He'll never find Sora in this twisted castle," Marluxia says to the blonde-haired woman.

"Oh… fine." She then goes to the couch and sits down.

Marluxia goes over to Zexion and asks him, "Have you gotten that fragment of his memory that we needed?"

"Of course, Marluxia. And I find it very amusing to modify it in such a way that it would seem real to Riku." Zexion laughs.

"He will be our key in getting out of her," Zexion continues. "However, he's not going back to the real world with us, right?"

"He isn't. He'll be staying here. Trapped in this nightmare forever," Marluxia replies.

Then Demyx asks, "Has anybody seen any of Vexen's replicas engaging Sora in combat yet?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Axel? Do you need some company down here? It feels awfully lonely."

"Sure I do, buddy. Sometimes, it's just cold in here."

"I know. You know what? I miss eating sea salt ice cream with you. Especially during those days in the castle."

"Me too, Roxas. Good times, good times."

"You still haven't told me why they locked you up in here? I mean… the real reason why they wanted to."

"Forgive me, Roxas, for not telling you that right now. It's still not the right time."

"What do you mean? What are you waiting for? Those four up there-" Roxas points up "-can just order me anytime to go fight Sora and die for them. And you don't want to tell me why?"

"I'm sorry, Roxas. But it's that…"

"It's that what? What are you hiding from me, Axel? Larxene and Marluxia have effectively wrested the control of the Organization here from Xemnas. Demyx and Zexion are their lieutenants or something. The rest of us just Nobodies who have given up their free will to serve them as well as keep on existing here."

Axel does not answer.

"And those four will stop at nothing to destroy my other. And although I may be able to go and reclaim from former self and live once again as a Nobody, chances are slim as long as those four are still in-charge."

Axel keeps his silence.

"You're not going to say anything to me? Xigbar is probably dead by now because he's the first one they sent. Vexen or Xaldin might be next. And I do not know what they have planned for me yet."

Roxas is ticked off and leaves Axel.

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"Where are you two leading me?"

Namine and Kairi continue on with Sora running behind them.

Then they reach a door. A very tall one to be precise.

It opens by itself revealing a larger room.

"We meet again, Sora," a man with an eye-patch greets him. "Ready for a rematch?"

Sora pulls out his keyblade. "Ready as always."

"Well then, let's begin! Hope you're not a sore loser!" Xigbar takes out his Gun Arrows.

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_Okay… that's it for this update. Do review and tell me what you think about it. I wonder where's Riku headed to?_


	8. A Cat and Mouse Game

_Here's another update, you guys. I hope you enjoy. If you have any questions, just PM me. But if it's about the plot, don't expect me to answer it. But please do because I sometimes assume that all my readers understand how everything is coming about. Anyways, enjoy this chapter._

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**Narration: **Sora loses his memory of the Behemoth because of defeating and killing his remaining recollection of it. However, he does it so to help what he thinks are his memories of both Kairi and Namine. Following them, he arrives to a room and proceeds to battle Xigbar.

Meanwhile, Riku goes off to look for Sora when he meets two familiar faces.

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Sora jumps towards Xigbar who shooting frenetically at him with his two guns.

The boy manages to get through the Nobody's attack and finally has Xigbar within his reach. With a swift strike from the keyblade, Xigbar drops to his knees.

"Where's Riku?" Sora demands as Xigbar starts to fade, helplessly looking at him.

However, out of spite, he just answers, "What would you like to know about it? He's already been…"

Then, Xigbar completely disappears and a staircase materializes in front of Sora.

"Xi…" Sora stops because at that instant he has also forgotten the guy's name.

As he stares unbelievingly at what just happened, an echo of giggling and laughing is then heard throughout the room.

Namine, Kairi and Sora look around to find out who are they.

And then, two Nobodies appear right in front of them.

"Now that was funny. Oh, Xigbar… that was all bark and no bite," the female one says.

"More like more brag and no bite," her male companion suggests.

"Good one, Demyx." They both laugh.

"What have you done to him? Why don't I seem to remember him anymore?" Sora asks angrily.

The woman chuckles. "Oh, you don't, do you? Well, I see that's something to laugh about… really. Each time you defeat a thing or a person here, they disappear from your memory."

"That's not all. If we or any other person here destroys your other memories, those will be gone too. Isn't that right, Larxene?" her companion asks.

"Perfectly right," she replies. She then looks at Sora. "Well, Sora? Aren't you going to laugh? It is pretty funny that you'll be forgetting almost everything sooner or later."

Sora clenches his fist and is about to strike them with the keyblade.

Unfortunately for him, they easily teleport away and leave Sora and the two girls to climb up the staircase for answers.

"What's their problem?" Namine asks.

"Long story. I'll tell you while we're going up." Sora starts going up the seemingly-endless staircase.

"Okay… but is this the first floor or the second?" Kairi asks.

"Don't know. But as long as we get to the eleventh, hey… how come you don't know the place but you know that we have to go up this thing?" Sora looks at her.

"Umm… because it's a piece of your memory that we all had to go up to the topmost floor of The Castle That Never Was to go and fight Xemnas," Kairi answers.

"Right…"

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Riku is walking around in endless circles about the castle. He has been passing by the same door over and over again.

Then, he hears two people walking.

They are coming closer. He sticks himself to the wall, obscuring his presence to those two who are continuing to walk and talk.

"Lexaeus, what do you mean 'stop interfering with their plans'? You know I will not allow myself to be bossed around by those four lower-ranked midgets."

"I think you should not talk about them like that."

"What do you mean? You do know that Xemnas is the only one here who truly deserves all that power and respect."

Riku sneaks a look at them and gasps. He recognizes those two. One of them is Lexaeus, the Nobody he had fought and defeated in Castle Oblivion. The other is Vexen.

He hesitates for a moment. But then, he reveals himself to them.

Upon seeing the boy, the two Nobodies jump back, startled by this.

"Why are you here?" Lexaeus questions the boy.

"I should be asking you the same question," Riku answers back as he draws out his Soul Eater.

Vexen cuts in for Lexaeus. "We're here because we ARE here. You're in your lover's mind and he's somewhere down this floor as well. What you are looking at are the memories of me and Lexaeus who are brought to life by the strength of how Sora recalls us."

"I see. And you two are working for the four?" Riku fires another question at them.

"If you mean Larxene, Marluxia, Zexion and Demyx, well we have different intentions in mind."

"Answer my question!"

"I'm a scientist. Not a planner. If you mean the answers to my experiment, they are not yet complete. Our new leaders..." Vexen gives a snort. "Are too secretive about their plans and only tell us bits of information."

Riku is a little bit unsatisfied with Vexen's answer.

He points his sword at Vexen.

"So you want to fight? But not now, Riku. Some other time," Vexen says and both he and Lexaeus disappear.

"Darn it. Some other time, coward. Some other time and I'll get you," Riku growls and he goes back to trying to find a way to meet Sora.

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Sora is halfway to the other end of the staircase when two cloaked figures drop from above in front of him.

Namine and Kairi stay behind his back while he readies his keyblade and enters his battle stance.

"Who are you two?" Sora asks.

The two do not answer and merely take out their swords.

"Those swords… they look familiar," Sora wonders. "I've seen them before."

"What do you two want?"

One of them just points at Sora.

"Me. Why?"

No answer and the two men dash towards Sora with their swords pointed at the keyblade wielder.

"Looks like there's no other way to settle this." Sora braces himself for the attack and tries to figure out how he should handle the situation.

"Be careful, Sora. They might be your memories!" Kairi calls out to him.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine." He gives her a wink.

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_That's it for this update. Hehehe. I just stopped here because I feel the better parts should be on the next chapter. Besides, the next one will be purely about the Nobodies... and a little bit about Sora's fight. Hehehe. Do leave a review for me._


	9. Two Revealed, Three More

_I'm sorry. Did I leave you guys hanging by a thread the last chapter? Thought so. Anyways, here's the next update. I hope you enjoy!_

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**Narration: **While trying to get more answers as well as finding Riku and a way to get out, Sora encounters two cloaked figures that fight with him when he, Kairi and Namine reach halfway to the end of the staircase.

Meanwhile, Xemnas is trying his best to try and gain back the control over what remains of the Organization.

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The two figures charge at Sora.

"Oh well… you two never learn, do you?" Sora sidesteps and swings his keyblade, hitting both attackers as they come within his range.

The strike hits both of them right in the face, causing their hoods to fall back and revealing their faces.

Sora gasps as he recognizes the identities of his two aggressors.

"Leon? Cloud?" He looks at them in wonder.

Leon and Cloud merely put their hoods back on and run away.

"Wait!" Sora calls out to them. "Come back, you two! I need to know…"

The pair disappears into a corridor.

"Why?" Sora asks, finishing his sentence.

"Leave them, Sora," Namine advises him. "We have to get you out of here. That's what matters now!"

"And Riku."

"And Riku," she adds before taking Sora's arms with Kairi.

"Now, let's go if you don't want other stuff to get in the way," Kairi tells him.

"Too late, Kairi. Incoming Heartless!" Namine points behind them as several more Shadows appear.

"Hurry! You guys go up first. I'll catch you guys later," Sora says. "GO! I'll be fine!"

Kairi and Namine hurry upstairs while Sora fights off the Heartless.

"You guys are getting annoying. I think it's best if I forget about all of you!" He charges at the Heartless with his keyblade, wildly thrashing it about and vanquishing several Heartless each time.

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The door creaks open.

Axel is alerted by the sound and immediately gets up. He senses that the footsteps are not Roxas's. he approaches the bars of his cell.

"Who's there?"

A man with long blue hair and a scar on his face steps out from the shadows. "Just an old friend… Lea."

"It's you… Saix."

"What's the matter? Aren't you glad to see an old friend? Other than Roxas, of course?"

"Roxas would be the only friend I consider upon joining the Organization. And he would be the only one I want to see right now."

"Really? Is that why you never told him what happened in Castle Oblivion or after the period of time when he left us?"

"No…" Axel says although a little bit unsure of his answer.

"Is that so? Is that so?"

Axel turns silent.

"What's the use of even having friends when you can't even tell them your secrets? You're a Nobody, Axel! You are not even supposed to feel!"

Then, Saix leaves, making Axel wonder if the former had been right all along. Right about Axel being a Nobody who tries to act like a normal person.

"Can I? Can I ever earn his trust back?" Axel asks himself as he stares at the ceiling, waiting for a possible answer.

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"We have to do something about this!"

The silent room resonates with Xemnas's voice. Roxas and Xaldin turn to see their former Superior who looks like he talking a monologues to himself with Vexen being his only "audience".

The blonde-haired boy and the man with the dreadlocks approach them separately.

Xemnas turns around to see the two of them.

"Nice of you two to join us," Vexen greets them.

"Well, I'm tired of waiting for my orders from those four. I think joining my former Superior and the scientist once more would be much more exciting than this," Xaldin replies.

"What about you, Roxas? What brings you here?"

"Nothing… just curious to why he is yelling at himself." The blonde points at Xemnas.

Xemnas walks over to Roxas and tells him, "You should still be addressing and respecting me as your Superior, Roxas."

"Sorry…" Roxas says half-heartedly.

"Anyways, moving on, now that we have four people in our group, it should be enough to take down those four usurpers," Xemnas exclaims.

"But we'll need a plan, Superior. They may be overconfident about us not defying them but they've limited our powers with their thoughts alone," Vexen informs Xemnas. "I think they are continually gaining more and more control over Sora's mind. They have even changed the structure of this castle into something else."

"I know, Vexen. I know. But that will be why we're going to target the toy they are going to use against Sora himself."

"What!" All three shout in disbelief.

"Of course. We get rid of Riku first. And then, that defeats their purpose, making them an easy kill for Sora. With them out of the way, we can defeat Sora ourselves and get out of here." Xemnas laughs.

"Brilliant idea, Superior!" Vexen applauds. He then turns to both Xaldin and Roxas. "So are you two with us or not?"

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Meanwhile, on the eleventh floor, the four are seated in chairs organized in a circular manner.

"I'm bored… two of Vexen's replicas just ran away. And to think they were the most powerful swordsmen Sora ever encountered." Larxene puts up a pout.

"You want a turn with the boy, Larxene?" Marluxia asks.

"Again, really?" Her face brightens up.

She then stands up. "I'll put on quite a show this time."

After she leaves, Zexion says, "Is that really necessary, Marluxia?"

"Of course it is, Zexion. We need Sora to become so exhausted again that he'll faint and dream of his memories with Riku again."

"I see. And we're going to use that information to persuade Riku into joining our side?"

"Precisely. We'll just alter those fragments a little bit and show them to Riku." Marluxia laughs.

"And he'll be devastated with even trusting Sora to become his lover in the first place. Very clever of you!" Demyx squeals in delight upon hearing the plan.

"Keep it down low, Demyx. We all know that the 'others' are also on to our plans," Zexion notifies Demyx.

"Sure, Zexion. No problem. My lips are sealed. Would you mind if I go and play some notes for myself?"

"Go ahead. And on your way, do tell Xaldin that he's next to face Sora," Marluxia dismisses the musician.

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_And that's that for now. Leave a review for me, okay? Larxene just never stops to keep on enjoying herself. Hehe. And that's two replicas revealed. Where are the other three?_


	10. Things Are Going To Get Messy

_Tenth update, you guys. I hope I'm not boring you guys to death or killing you with the suspense or anything. Anyways, have a happy reading. By the way, some of the dialogues are just imagined when watching an amv. I never actually played Kingdom Hearts before. (Weird? I know.)_

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**Narration: **Just as he has defeated Leon and Cloud, Sora had to fight a bunch of Heartless which were easily dispatched. He runs up to the last step and sees something not he was expecting.

In the meantime, the other Nobodies who are not contented with the rule of the Big Four are trying to devise a plan for Xemnas to regain his rightful position.

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Sora has just finished placing his last foot on the end of the staircase. He is panting for air.

"Namine? Kairi?"

"Hello, Sora! So how's the castle so far? Fun, right?" a different voice asked him playfully.

"What?" He looks up and sees Larxene.

"Why so shocked?" Larxene blasts him with a bolt of electricity.

Sora staggers backwards. "Where's Kairi and Nemine?"

"Oh, you mean those two? They just tucked tail and ran."

With a blink of an eye, she is then seen just beside Sora.

"I'm glad you have even proved yourself even stronger than before. Now being able to beat Vexen's replicas of Cloud and Leon."

Sora grits his teeth. "Replicas again?"

Larxene tells him teasingly, "Oh, don't get your temper in a bunch. Things are bound to be more interesting when you're going to see what we've done to your boyfriend."

"What have you done to him?" Sora looks at Larxene furiously.

She smiles and hits Sora with a quick swing of her left arm, sending him crashing to the floor.

A golden locket drops on the floor.

"Oh! What's this?" Larxene walks up to it and opens it.

She sees a picture of Sora and Riku in a loving embrace.

"Disgusting… and worthless piece of junk." She holds it in her arms.

Sora gets up. "Give it back! That locket's from Riku and it means so much to me."

"Really? Then, if that's the case, I hope you don't mind missing it because I'm crushing this piece of tacky garbage out of your mind!" Larxene holds the locket in her right hand.

However, on the last minute, she drops it while evading Sora's sudden attack on to her.

"What's the matter? You really love him that much?" She giggles when Sora puts the locket back on his neck. "Oh well… it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun trying to take that happiness away from you then!"

She then summons up her knives. "Well... prepare yourself!"

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"Now what was it? Call who again?" Demyx tries to remember. "Man, I should be paying more attention to what other people are saying."

He reaches the door.

"Oh, well. Here goes nothing. And wait, didn't Zexion tell me we needed two or three other sergeants? So I have to pick… umm… Saix and Luxord. One more… Roxas. That will be it. Okay here goes."

He opens the door. The other Nobodies are all separated into two so-called "camps". Lexaeus, Luxord and Saix on one side; Xemnas, Vexen, Xaldin and Roxas on the other.

"Lexaeus!" he calls out to the big reddish-brown-haired guy. "You're next!"

As soon as Lexaeus teleports, Demyx gestures to Saix, Luxord and Roxas to come with him.

"Think about it…" Xaldin whispers to Roxas.

Roxas then leaves the room with Saix and Luxord.

"Okay, you three. The four of us has selected you guys to be the something like a colonel over the lesser rankings of those Nobodies." Demyx points at the room with the rest of the Organization.

"We have chosen you four because we all know that your loyalty lies on Marluxia's side, right? So on his behalf, I will be allowing you three to use the other rooms on top of the castle with us. Got that?"

All three nod obediently.

"Good! I'm going off to play some notes." Demyx disappears with a grin. "Be good… or else."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Fantastic! I'm impressed that you lasted a little bit longer against me this time!"

Sora falls on knees, exhausted to the point of nearly passing out. "I'm not through yet."

"Of course not!" She laughs. "You aren't in your grave yet!"

"I will not allow you to hurt Riku!"

"You don't mean that we're the bad guys." Larxene gives out a gasp of pretend shock. She then smiles. "After all, he's been hurt time and time again… by yours truly and my two other friends."

"You hurt him? How dare you!" Sora charges at her.

But Larxene easily evades the attack and punches Sora in the face.

"Poor child… poor stupid child is more I like it!" Larxene scoffs.

She then repeatedly jabs Sora until he falls on the floor. This time he is on the verge of passing out.

"Well, Sora, I got to admit you're very lucky indeed. The next floors will have all the upgrades… of your enemies. See you later, loser!"

Sora's eyes then close from exhaustion.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Saix walks in Axel's cell once more.

"How's it going… old friend?"

"You're not my friend," Axel answers almost immediately.

"Now that is painful… I mean, that WAS painful. I don't have a heart now, do I? Neither do you!"

"But I can feel, Saix! I'm not like you!" Axel walks up to the bars.

"Really? I guess that explains from Vexen's death to Marluxia's and to the rest of the Organization members."

Axel doesn't answer.

"Think about it, Lea. You barely thought twice of betraying Marluxia and Larxene, causing their deaths. You didn't even hesitate to kill Vexen. You wouldn't even care if it was you who killed Zexion. Now how can you say you have feelings? Just because you love another teenage boy who showed you what it's like to feel again. Now that's something pitiable."

"Shut up, Saix!"

"Now then, don't get you temper flaring. I wouldn't want Demyx to get in here, now do I?"

"You don't know me!"

"But I do, Lea. I do. I have known you as a human and as a Nobody. Now why would you say that? After all, we WERE friends."

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Axel puts his hands up to his head.

"Fine… we'll stop reliving your old memories… if it hurts you that much." Saix leaves.

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_Was that good? I just love messing people's minds up. I'm that "heartless". Oh well, let's see what happens in the next chapter now, shall we? Leave a review for me please._


	11. A Little Surpise

_Here's another update! I definitely love where this story is heading to. I don't know… messing with people's minds, hearts, emotions, feelings… all the fun of it. Really! I just enjoy myself, weaving mounds and mounds of guilt and anger into our protagonists. Anyways, I should stop stalling and let you guys read the next chapter. Enjoy the fun and emotions... while you can... Just kidding. Anyways, just go ahead and read. I do not turn poeple to Heartless just in case you're wondering._

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**Narration: **After being knocked out by Larxene, Sora awakens in a different room. He is still separated from both Namine and Kairi. He tries to look for them but instead finds someone else.

On the other hand, Riku opens a door in one of the castle's higher floors and gets into a fight.

Last but not the least; Xemnas has finally gotten together his plans with Vexen and Xaldin.

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_Sora and Riku just finished swimming in the waters of Destiny Islands and are walking back to the area of the shore where they left their belongings._

"_Riku?"_

"_Yes, Sora?"_

"_I feel hungry." Sora feels his stomach._

_Riku reaches for the picnic basket and pulls out a paupu fruit._

"_That for me?"_

_Riku hands the fruit to his lover. "Yes, Sora, my dear. It's for you… and for me."_

_He puts it between their mouths._

Just as when the two bite on the fruit together, Sora wakes up.

He looks around. The room looks different. It is in a shade of gray and red. He stands up.

"Namine? Kairi? Where are you?" he calls out.

His voice echoes throughout the empty room.

"Would you mind keeping your noise down?" a deep voice says.

Sora turns around. "Who are you? I never met you before. But you're… Lexaeus?"

"Correct. Roxas's memories must have integrated with your own. I'm sure he knows what I am capable of." Lexaeus lifts his tomahawk and plants it beside him.

"Let me guess. You're here because of their orders."

"Of course. I only do what must be done or what the higher-ups tell me to do so."

"The only thing you'll be doing is fading back to where you came from." Sora takes out his keyblade.

"If you must." Lexaeus lifts his tomahawk. "Larxene, Marluxia, Demyx, Zexion, watch me! I will eliminate this feint-hearted weakling like you all asked me to."

"Another mindless follower," Sora mutters as he charges to face Lexaeus.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"All right. So when will we proceed with the plan, Superior?" Xaldin asks.

"In due time. We must make sure that no one else gets hold of what we're intending to do."

"Why? We can strike now if we want to. Saix and Luxord are both not here in the first place. The two side-switchers," Xaldin says with hatred.

"Indeed. If we prove to be successful in our endeavors, all those who have turned their back on us shall pay."

Xemnas then turns to Vexen. "What's the status of your replicas, Vexen?"

He faces his Superior and calmly states, "Two have been defeated in combat once but are not 'technically' gone yet. The other two… I have lost track of their location. They had been tailing Sora until I lost track of their whereabouts."

"And the last one?"

"Still inactive. Until the time is right, of course."

"Well-planned, my most loyal follower. Now then, let's talk about…"

Marluxia drops in.

"Where's Lexaeus? And why is Xaldin still here?" he asks.

The trio are about to say something but they remain silent as Marluxia opens his mouth once more to issue an order.

"Demyx must have sent Lexaeus by mistake. No matter. It's not a problem. Sora will have to be careful in facing Lexaeus nonetheless." He points at Xaldin. "Get ready. You're facing Sora after Lexaeus. Now, hurry up and leave."

Xaldin reluctantly departs, leaving Marluxia, Xemnas and Vexen alone in the room.

"None of us wants to be suspicious of a comrade… but you two are on to something and don't think that the rest of us know your real intentions."

This leaves both Xemnas and Vexen, wondering how to proceed on with their objectives, as Marluxia teleports out of the room.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Sora?" Riku opens a big purple door.

He goes in and continues to call out Sora's name.

Then, a huge weird-looking entity appears in front of him. A bodiless cloaked spirit levitating above the ground blocks his way.

It dashes at Riku and attempts to slash the boy into shreds with its claws. But Riku draws out his keyblade in the nick of time and parries all of the Heartless's strike.

He leaps out of the way. "What do you want?"

It merely ignores Riku's words and fires an energy ball at him.

Riku rolls out of the way and says, "Looks like I have not only the Nobodies up there to fight but also you too."

The Phantom then proceeds to use Doom on the boy.

"Well, I got to finish this quickly. Time is running out… literally." He charges at the Heartless.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Roxas sits on the bed in his "new room" awarded to him by only the four members who have seized the power of the Organization from Xemnas.

"What am I going to do? If I side with Xemnas… no. I can't side with Xemnas. He'll only use me for his gains. Besides, what did I really get from joining the Organization aside from having a friend who's now imprisoned because of treason?"

His head then falls on a pillow on the bed.

"Axel… what can I do to you so that we can be friends again? I need to know why you did it."

He turns to his left.

"If I side with Marluxia, I have no idea how long I'll be surviving in this mess. They only want revenge at Sora for destroying their real world bodies."

He then looks up at the ceiling.

"What am I going to do? What… what… I need to do something. I don't want to… die here nor do I want to destroy Sora. I just want to have my own life back again. I want my vacation to begin anew."

"I need to exist once more…"

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_There we go… The plot's getting a little complicated, right? I mean, aside from the obvious getting back at Sora, there seems to be something else… something far more disturbing? Maybe. Anyways, tune in for the next update. Leave a review if you want to._


	12. Complicating the Plot

_Chapter 12! Here we go. So I'm guessing of adding someone who's pretty familiar with you guys here. Or maybe she's not really familiar but I'm adding her nonetheless. Anyways, I hope you still enjoy the plot. Hehe, have a happy reading on this one._

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**Narration: **Sora enocunters Lexaeus after regaining consciousness in a different room.

Meanwhile, Riku gets more than he was looking for upon defeating the Phantom Heartless.

And on the other floor, the four replicas meet.

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"Defeated! All too easy." Riku smiles arrogantly as he deals the finishing blow to the Phantom Heartless which then starts to disappear slowly.

Suddenly, he feels his head aching.

"What now?" He looks back and still sees the Heartless slowly fading away. But then, he feels he could not remember what it was like.

He forces himself to the door which he finds out is locked.

He is trapped and cannot get out.

"Going somewhere, Riku? You shouldn't have wandered around by yourself, you know. You could've gotten lost. We were so worried about you," a feminine voice teases him.

"You again? What are you two doing to my head? Why cannot I remember that Heartless just now?" Riku looks around to see where her voice is coming from.

"Chill out, dude. It's not nice to pick fights with random strangers. Besides, we're giving you a quite fitting accommodation," a guy's voice tells him.

"You see, the place you are in now is constructed by the pooled efforts of you and your boyfriend's memories. Whatever happens here affects you two." The female starts to giggle.

Riku looks surprised but nevertheless ready to battle.

"Come on. You cannot fight in your condition now. Right, Larxene?"

"Right, Demyx. But if he insists so, why don't you go? I'm very bored with trying to fight useless weak people. He's pretty easy and unsurprising to deal with. Go on."

Demyx appears in front of Riku. Larxene is then beside him, whispering something in his ear.

"Okay, Larxene." He turns to Riku. "Get ready because I'm going to bring the entire castle down on you!"

"Not if I do it first." Riku strengthens his grip on his weapon.

"I'd love to continue the chat. But… business means business so I have to see to it that you're going to forget about siding with your boyfriend." Demyx summons his sitar.

"Even if it will cost me my life, I will not go against Sora!"

"Music to my ears… not! Say it one more time and I'll definitely blast you with my lightning!" Larxene shrieks, getting really irritated with the fidelity of Riku.

"Calm down, Larxene. He just needs a little motivation. And a little melody just might do the trick!" Demyx starts playing on his sitar, calling forth several water forms. "Dance water dance!"

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Lexaeus braces himself for Sora's strike, putting his tomahawk right in front of him to block the blow. Sora charges at him with the keyblade facing the Nobody.

"Where is Riku?" Sora demands as his attack passes entirely through Lexaeus.

Sora is now opposite Lexaeus, waiting for an answer.

Lexaeus falls on his knees, slowly disappearing.

"I know where my allegiance lies. I will not betray them. You will not get anything from me. My masters will see to it that it is they who will reveal their plans to you. Not me."

With his final breath, Lexaeus completely disappears and leaves three cards in his wake.

Sora goes over to pick the cards up. Two Cure cards and a Firaga card.

"Now, I suppose I must go through that door." Sora stuffs the cards into his pocket and walks over to the door.

He twists the doorknob, pushes it and enters the room.

A blinding flash of light hits his eyes, forcing him to cover them. He tries to make something out of what's inside the room but to no avail as the light is too strong.

And then, something thumps him at the back of his head. He falls on the ground and loses all consciousness.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Cloud and Leon are sitting cross-legged on the floor when two figures come in. Both are wearing black cloaks like the rest of the Organization members.

"So you two… where have you two been?" Leon asked them.

"Just trying to get a hold of the castle with a tour guide," the one with a friendlier voice says.

"What about you two? Why'd you run off just like that? I thought you guys were the closest thing to defeat Sora," the other companion asks.

"He overpowered us. I'm sure you saw that, right?" Leon answers.

"Come on. He's pathetic. That's what Larxene and Vexen keep saying, right? Can't you two at least beat him?"

"Easy for you to say. You're just masquerading as a…" Leon stops as the figure grabs him by the neck and is about to choke him.

"Don't get your hopes up. The masters and the mistress of the castle do not tolerate cowardice or failure. It's best if you both exterminate the brat on your next meeting or else."

The figure then puts Leon down.

"But we're only replicas of Sora's real memories. We can't do much in here," Cloud protests.

"Who said you're only replicas?" the first and friendlier voice says. "If you help their cause, they will be able to liberate you guys from Sora's mind. And you two will be able to go to the real world, find you real selves and absorb them so that you can become the real 'Cloud' and 'Leon'."

"That's not bad," the Leon replica answers with a grin.

"Of course it isn't. That's why you were all made in the first place," the second one says. "So? Are you two going to annihilate Sora this time?"

"For sure," the Cloud replica replies.

"Brilliant," the two hooded figures exclaim with glee.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"_Sora? Sora?" Riku heads out of the bathroom with a towel draped on his back and another towel around his waist._

_No answer._

_Riku continues heading out while drying his hair with the towel._

"_What? His clothes are all lying on the floor? What has gotten into him?" Riku wonders as he goes on to the bedroom. Sora's clothes are all scattered in the hallway._

"_Sora? Are you in there?" Riku pushes the bedroom door open._

"_Sora?"_

Riku gets up. He has passed out from his fight with Demyx.

And now, he's on a bed. A wonderfully soft one. Around him are soft, fluffy pillows in the shape of hearts.

Then he notices his clothes are gone!

He's on the bed naked except for a black cloak over him like a blanket.

"Ahhhh!" he screams as a woman and a blue-haired man appears in the room.

"Did we… umm… startle you?" Larxene laughs.

"We meant to bring you some… food." Zexion presents a tray of pancakes to Riku.

Riku embarrassedly pulls the cloak to hide his body under it as Zexion places the tray beside him.

"Where are my clothes?" Riku awkwardly asks Larxene and Zexion.

Larxene and Zexion look at each other first before answering.

"Your clothes got really, really wet from the fight with Demyx." Larxene nudges Zexion.

"Ah, yes. And you were knocked out. We had to take your clothes off to dry them and replaced it with a spare cloak we found in one of the empty rooms in the castle."

Riku blushes when hears Zexion say that they undressed him while he was unconscious.

"Don't be stupid, boy! We didn't molest you while sleeping!" Zexion yells upon seeing the boy's flushed cheeks.

"Yeah. Don't be stupid! Axel and Xemnas are the only boy-touchers in here." Larxene laughs.

"Enjoy the food, Riku. We'll be back with your new clothes. Don't go anywhere… or else," Zexion warns him before leaving with Larxene.

Riku stares at the food given to him by the Nobodies.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Nice of you to come around at this moment, Sora!" a blue-haired man appears before him.

"Ze-Ze-Zexion?" Sora gets up.

"Wow! That is so touching that you remembered my name although you have only fought against my Absent Silhouette and only Roxas and Riku have truly met me in person."

"Where am I?" He faces Zexion.

"You're still in our happy home, Sora. Aren't you feeling happy?"

"Do I look like I'm happy that you've taken away the only person that matters to me most?"

"Well… it is a pleasure that we took him away from you then. Isn't it? Has your burden lightened up?"

"Lightened up? I'm not leaving Riku behind even if there is a portal back home right now in front of me!" Sora screams at Zexion.

"Hmm… I see. Then, let me make it clear to you that you and your boyfriend shall ever be separated through space and time for eternity!" Zexion summons his lexicon.

Then, another bunch of lexicons surround Sora.

Sora takes out his keyblade and points it at Zexion. "You're going down because of this."

"We'll see who's going down first!" Zexion laughs.

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_So that's it for now. I'll be updating as soon as possible. Just got to love the guilt and anger growing in them. It's so delicious. Haha,kidding about that. Do leave a review for me._


	13. We Have to Break the Toy

_I got this update up for you guys. Thanks for reviewing or at least even reading my story. Anyways, I hope I'm not boring you guys to death with Sora being repeatedly knocked out. I think I'll stop with that for now. Hehe. Plus, if you think I'm really boring, please let me know because I would try to liven up this fic. On to the chapter, everyone. Just in case I don't notice, typos might be present in the chapters. I will fix them if you are kind enough to tell me. Hehe._

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**Narration: **As Sora wanders about in the third floor, he is knocked out. When he wakes up, he gets into a fight with Zexion who he also remembers due to Roxas's memories.

Then, Riku, on the other hand, is being held "captive" by Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx and Zexion. What will he do to save himself and Sora?

Lastly, with only the two remaining uncooperative members left, are they or will they be able to thwart the Big Four's plans?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Sora leaps up with the keyblade in his hand, about to strike Zexion.

"You really think you can hit me with that, don't you?" Zexion does not seem to care about his situation. "Fine then. If you insist to do so."

The keyblade smacks Zexion's head.

"Direct hit!" Sora exclaims.

But then, the Zexion he just hit fades and the real Zexion is not even there in the first place.

Puzzled, Sora stands up and looks around to see the Nobody laughing just behind him.

"See through my illusion yet? No? Well, you can't even see through yours!" Zexion mocks Sora and leaps out of Sora's reach.

Then,he makes multiple copies of Riku that appear before Sora.

"Fight him, Sora! Fight him! Show your true heartless personality," Zexion further provokes the boy.

The Rikus encircle Sora and take out their swords. Sora does not move.

His feet are rooted to the ground. He just stares at the hallucinations induced upon him.

"What's the matter, Sora? Can you not fight for yourself? Is trying to hurt someone you love really that hard?" Zexion is getting amused with trying to goad Sora into attacking his Riku illusions.

Sora grips harder on the keyblade.

"Well, what's it going to be? Your life or your lover's life?"

The hallucinations then start to close in on him with crazed murderous intent in their eyes.

"Your screams of terror, Sora? It's impolite to keep me waiting for them!" Zexion is enjoying himself.

Suddenly, the door behind Zexion bursts open. It is Xaldin.

"Zexion? What are you doing here? I thought you said the boy is going to be my opponent," Xaldin says, astonished and quite angered.

"What I'm doing is warming up the useless fool for you." Zexion snaps his fingers. All the illusions around Sora disappear.

The keyblade-wielder regains his courage and strength. He looks at Zexion and Xaldin fiercely.

"You're not going away that easily." Sora charges at Zexion.

"Really?" Zexion chuckles before disappearing into a Corridor. "See you on the eleventh floor!"

Xaldin faces Sora who is now just a few meters away from him.

"You and me again, huh?" Xaldin smirks at Sora who looks a little worked up in his short fight with Zexion.

"You're the one who stole the rose from Beast's castle."

"Hmmm… thanks for stating out the obvious. Well, let's see if you can still handle me this time." Xaldin calls upon his six lances.

"I've handled more difficult opponents than you," Sora says.

"What's that?" Xaldin throws one of his lances at the boy who easily deflects it with the keyblade. "You're looking for a fight, boy? Well, I'll give you a fight!"

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Marluxia, Demyx and Larxene enter the room where Riku is supposedly being kept. However, Riku seems to have snuck off. The Black Cloak they have given him has been taken away as well.

"Stupid child!" Larxene is outraged by this. "To think I had Zexion make him some pancakes so he wouldn't die of starvation. To think that they all call me a heartless person…" She is deliberately feigning emotional pain.

"Heartless? The castle has a lot of Heartless for Sora, Larxene. Why would we need more Heartless?" Demyx asks, clueless of what Larxene meant. "We even got Nobodies and replicas to add."

Larxene glares at the musician who has obviously gotten the wrong meaning of Larxene's act. Marluxia raises his hand to stop the two from arguing.

"That impudent boy. He seems to have taken our kindness for granted. We do not wish to hurt him yet he persists in trying our temperaments," Marluxia then says coolly. "Desperate needs always call for unlikely solutions."

A rose petal falls into his hand and as his hand closes on it, he summons out his scythe.

"If it is torture he's looking for, then that will be exactly what he gets. Split up and go find him!" Marluxia orders them.

"On the double!" Larxene and Demyx say in unison and go off in search of Riku.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Xemnas and Vexen are the only ones left in the crummy old room where the four have been keeping the other members.

"So what now, Superior? Xaldin's currently engaging that boy in battle. And there are only two of us to carry out the plan."

"Then, we do your back-up plan, Vexen. We have no other choice. Or rather, we have no choice at all except to go on using a strategy."

"So we attack Sora? When?"

"After Xaldin wears him out."

"But I am quite puzzled as to why Sora is still standing after taking multiple beatings from other enemies like the Heartless and the lesser Nobodies stalking around the castle. Not to mention the periodically sending of the other members to face off with Sora by Marluxia."

"Indeed, Vexen. There must be something very suspicious going on in this castle."

"I know. That boy… how can he survive attacks that continuously bombard him or something?"

"I bet there's more than just revenge those four want from Sora. They probably want something else."

"Like what, Superior? What do you think that would be?"

"Well…" Xemnas takes a moment and tries to deduce something. "If they really wanted to kill Sora off, they should have done about hours ago. I'm thinking they want him to suffer quite a bit before finishing him off."

"But if physical pain is what they're after… no, it's not possible. I have created replicas… to wait a second. Superior, I think I have gotten their actual answer why they dragged Sora down to this place."

Xemnas stops Vexen from continuing on with his sentence. "Yes, of course. They want to use Riku against Sora. They want Sora to feel anguish and intense emotional pain… why haven't we thought of that?"

"Don't worry, Superior. My last replica will see to it that Sora will not be used for their gains. So what is our next move now?" Vexen asks eagerly.

"We destroy the real Riku first." Xemnas grins quite maliciously.

Then, at once the two open up their separate Corridors of Darkness and leave the room.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Xaldin emerges from a portal, gripping his side.

He slowly walks through the empty hallway of the eleventh floor. The pain seems unbearable as Xaldin winces for every few inches he moves.

Not long after, he hears footsteps coming on to his direction.

"Zexion?" he asks, still with his back turned at where the sound is coming from.

No answer but the sound of footsteps continues.

"Demyx?" he asks once more, clutching tightly now to his side.

Still no answer but whoever is approaching him is now coming nearer and nearer.

"Marluxia? Larxene?" Xaldin manages to grunt. His wounds are causing too much agony on him.

He falls on the ground, still grasping his side. He tries to crawl towards where the sound is coming from as the one is walking still has not gotten to Xaldin's location yet.

"Vexen? Xemnas?" Xaldin begins to worry.

"Pathetic coward. Let me guess, you just got into a fight and ran away?" a voice calls out to him.

Xaldin turns around and sees a cloaked figure.

"And who are you to say that to me? You're not an Organization member!" Xaldin demands angrily. But he once again falls flat on the ground as the pain continues to throb.

"I? You're asking me? Well… I am your executioner!" The figure holds up his weapon, a sword.

"This… is the end… for me?" Xaldin manages to say before it deals the final blow to him.

And his lifeless body slumps down on the ground, slowly disappearing back into the nothingness.

The figure turns around and leaves.

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_Is this a cliffhanger? I don't really know because I never used them. Guys, I could use some advice if you think some of the characters are getting out of their own character. Hehe. I feel terrible sending Xaldin, Xigbar and Lexaeus to die… but the story must go on. Leave a review for me. Hehe, thanks._


	14. It Gets Even More Tragic

_Here's another update to the story, guys. Sorry for the late update. I got caught up with latest new craze in my stupid pubescent head. Anyway, enjoy! Thanks for the reviews. I really felt inspired after seeing a really cute yaoi picture of Sora and Riku in Photobucket! Hahaha! Moving on, let's go to the story._

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**Narration: **On the fourth floor, Sora is ambushed by two Vexen's replicas while trying to get to the next floor.

Meanwhile, Xemnas and Vexen attack Riku in an effort to screw the Big Four's plans. Will they succeed? Or will they just be eliminated again?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Roaming on the fourth floor after taking the staircase that appeared upon Xaldin's defeat, Sora gets into an abnormally narrow hallway. It is as if the castle has suddenly increased in length as the ceilings are higher on this floor than the last one.

The walls seem to have compressed slightly, giving the hallway an impression of being in a tower.

Suddenly, dark pools start to materialize on the ground around Sora.

"Heartless again? When will the Organization XIII learn that these are just not enough to beat me?" Sora asks himself as he watches several Neoshadows emerge from their black puddles.

He then starts to jump here and there so fast while swinging his keyblade at the attacking Neoshadows.

The Neoshadows are easily defeated. However, something seems strange about the Neoshadows being that easy to defeat. Sora notices this fact as well. Although it had been years since he had fought with Heartless, Neoshadows are definitely not this easy to overcome.

He tries to look around and see if there is anything or anyone lurking nearby. He looks to his right.

He hears footsteps scurrying.

Gripping onto the hilt of the keyblade even tighter, Sora tries to further survey his surroundings. He has been obviously forced into a trap.

He hears another set of footsteps. This time it is another person's.

"Come out whoever you are!" Sora calls out to his stalkers.

"I think you don't know who you're dealing with!" A figure that looks exactly like Leon comes out from the darkness and attacks Sora with his gunblade.

Sora blocks Leon's attack and retreats backward only to bump into another person.

"You wanted us to come out of hiding, right? Why is that you don't seem pleased?" the person asks.

Sora turns around and sees Cloud who is about to cut Sora in half with his Buster Sword.

"What are you two doing? I thought you were the good guys!" Sora tries to knock some sense into his two assailants' heads.

"Good guys? We ARE the good guys. You're the only bad guy here who's keeping us from being real!" Leon charges at Sora.

"I don't get it…" Sora jumps out of the way of Leon's attack.

"We have been instructed to eliminate so we can get out of here! We want to be real and not a fake, Sora!" Leon says in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"And you're trying to stop us from being the real us!" Cloud adds.

"You two are crazy! You guys are only my memories of the real Cloud and Leon!" Sora says, protesting.

"We'll show you who the memory actually is! We're very real! Vexen and the others said so!" Cloud leaps into the air, ready to slam his sword and break open Sora's head.

"Vexen? He made replicas again?" Sora leaps out of the way but is attacked by Leon who blasts him with a fireball.

"We're not copies! We're the real deal and we'll prove it!" Leon watches Sora get hit by his spell.

Sora uses up one of his Cure cards and stands back up. "Well, if I have to, then I guess I must defeat you two to get through."

Cloud and Leon laugh at the keyblade-wielder's statement and then engage him in a formal battle.

"We'll see who's going to lose when we're through!" Leon taunts Sora.

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Still in the black cloak, Riku is wandering once again around the castle after escaping the clutches of the Big Four. He stumbles across a room that has weird resemblance to a place where he had met Sora who was in a deep sleep.

Riku can feel Sora's voice calling out to him. Saying "My love, I'll never leave you. I won't forget. I will never…"

"Sora? Where are you?"

"I'm here. Always… with you."

"But where are you?"

"In your heart… in your mind… you know that I'm always there by your side."

Riku smiles at this. However, the moment is cut short when two Nobodies arrive in the room.

"Superior, what's all this? This room is not even in The Castle That Never Was nor was it in Castle Oblivion?" says the man with long beige hair.

"This is the sign that Sora's control over his memory is starting to slip away. Soon, those four will be able to manipulate every single piece of memory here. Sora's memories of other beings. Even us," the man's companion states.

"You two? Are you two also behind this? Helping Larxene and the others?" Riku asks them, furious of what is now happening to Sora's mind.

"Us? Help those four usurpers? I would rather tell you my side of the story but then again we have to eliminate you in order to stop their plans," Xemnas tells Riku.

"Plan? What plan?" Riku asks in astonishment.

"Isn't it obvious? You little child, your mind must be withering away. Let me put you out of your misery!" Vexen summons his shield and gets into his battle stance.

"Not if I put you out of your deranged mind first!" Riku retorts.

"It's a two-on-one, Riku! I assure you that your demise will be as painless as possible if you surrender now," Xemnas suggests.

"I will not allow you to continue and use Sora as your toy." Riku takes out his Soul Eater.

"What a blindly loyal lover you are! And you are starting to get on my nerves. Resisting in the real world was understandable. But continuing to do so in here is plain stupidity!" Xemnas grunts.

"I may be stupid but I have a heart!" Riku replies with determination to win in this fight.

"We shall see about that, child!" Xemnas merely dismisses Riku's reply as a joke.

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Meanwhile, Zexion has just returned to the eleventh floor from fighting Sora. He is not looking pleased about the outcome of Xaldin's battle with Sora.

"Why did we even send Xaldin?" He takes a seat on the couch and tries to regain his energy.

"Because we're trying to weed out traitors," a voice answers Zexion.

Out of curiosity and not surprise, Zexion turns around and sees Marluxia.

"How was sending Xaldin weeding out traitors?"

"Let me tell you, Zexion, that I had always been suspicious about Xemnas and Vexen's actions. As such I have sent one member after another at Sora and see their reactions."

"I see. But where will that get us?"

"Where will it get us? Well, I have observed that Xemnas and Vexen have already dug up our plans to use Riku against Sora so that we can get out of this prison. Right about this very moment, they must be engaging Riku in battle."

"Why so amused, Marluxia? Our toy is about to be destroyed."

"Amused about that? No, I am amused of even thinking about how Xemnas and Vexen would want to challenge Riku without our orders."

"I see… Xemnas probably underestimated our control over their powers. So what did you do that is going to make a difference this time?"

"What I did was limited their power and abilities to a greater extent that they can even barely injure Riku."

"And that gets rid of the traitors, right?"

"Of course… unless Riku is definitely more useless than before. We'll just have to see about that."

"I get your point. By the way, where are Larxene and Demyx?"

"I sent them to find Riku. But seeing that Riku has been found by the traitors, it seems we have found him as well."

"So you're not calling Larxene and Demyx back here? Besides, we already know his location, right?"

"Already have, Zexion. Now why don't you take a rest? It must have been frustrating trying to get through Sora's thick skull."

Zexion reclines on the couch and says, "He's worse than a five-year-old spoiled brat. And when do actually show Riku the-"

But before he can finish his sentence, Larxene and Demyx arrive into the room.

"The idiot boy thinks he can really find us… Well, I think he needed some directions. And I've perfectly prepared those in the room before he entered it," Larxene reports to Marluxia.

"Yeah, she totally did. If Riku does indeed manage to defeat Xemnas, the portal that would appear afterward will lead him right back to where he started!" Demyx interrupts Larxene.

Larxene glares at Demyx for stealing what she has to report.

Marluxia stops them again from arguing and merely states, "Excellent work then, Larxene and Demyx. Now let us prepare the items for our visitor."

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The replicas of Cloud and Leon drop their weapons after being defeated in a long impressive showdown of exchanging blows.

Slowly, they start to fade.

Out of pity, Sora kneels between the two and starts to sob for them.

"So this is what it's like to die… as a fake…" the blonde slowly reaches for Sora who holds his hand.

"Although you weren't like the real Cloud, you were nonetheless a great fighter," Sora tells him with tears in his eyes.

"Great to know… that… I… took after… who I was… copied… from," the Cloud replica says weakly.

Sora smiles while the tears rush down his cheeks.

"What… about me?" the Leon replica asks Sora as he turns to his left to face the boy.

"You were great." Sora brushes his tears of with his arm but they continue to keep coming.

"I… am… very happy… to hear… that… from my… opponent," the brown-haired replica replies as he smiles back at Sora too.

"Just one question," the other replica asks. "Where do we go… when we die?"

Sora merely answers, "I don't know. But definitely somewhere happy."

"Thank you," both replicas say before fading completely.

And then, at that moment, Sora has lost all of what he remembered of the real Cloud Strife and Leon.

He gets up and looks at the portal that emerges before him.

"Larxene, Demyx, Zexion and Marluxia will pay for all this!" he shouts angrily before leaping into it with his keyblade.

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_The dialogue seemed sad. What did you think? Well, anyways, is the story starting to become dragging? And I still don't know who killed Xaldin… uh-oh. Is there a traitor on the loose? On the next chapter, I hope to go back on Roxas and Axel. See you until then. Leave review for me!_


	15. The Puppet Plan

_Another update here! Sorry, guys. I've been getting sidetracked with other stuff. I'm really sorry. So anyways, here's the next chapter. Have fun reading it!_

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**Narration:** While Sora makes his way to the next floor, Riku goes back to square one. Back on the eleventh floor where Larxene, Marluxia, Demyx and Zexion are waiting for him. And just what do they have in store for Riku?

On the other hand, someone pays another visit to the imprisoned brunette. Now what conversation will be struck up next?

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Footsteps echo throughout Axel's soundless prison. Someone has gone to visit him.

Originally lying down on the hard cold ground, the redhead gets up and tries to see who just went in. His eyes squint as to see who could have possibly come to visit him at this time.

And after hearing from Saix that three have already perished at Sora's hands, he is wondering who his visitor might be. Besides, no one else has been fond of him even when he was still alive in the Organization.

His first assumption is that Saix is either visiting him again to torment him. He tries to ignore the footsteps but stops to turn when he hears someone calling his name.

"Axel?" a voice calls out to him. He comes out of the shadows and waves at Axel.

"Roxas? Is that really… you?" Axel is surprised that the blonde even came down to see him.

"What brings you here?" Axel asks Roxas.

"Me? I went here because I had been ordered to give you food. The four don't seem to want to kill you yet. They're probably waiting for some perfect opportunity." The blonde passes a tray of food under the bars of Axel's cell.

"Look, I'm sorry for not telling you this. But I have always thought that the Organization was on to something. And they were using you… and maybe me too… and probably the rest of the members as well so Xemnas can take Kingdom Hearts. Why I betrayed the Organization is because I wanted to see you… it had been so long then since you've been gone. I was getting lonely… and I missed you."

"You did, huh? Well, I missed you too. Missed you of being right there beside me…" Roxas stretches his hand out and into Axel's cell.

"You're not mad?"

"No, well… I thought about it. And just because I'm your friend doesn't mean you always have to explain every single thing you do, right? This time, I mean it. We were and always will be friends."

"Sorry for keeping so many secrets from you." Axel takes Roxas's hand and smiles.

"Apology accepted, buddy." Roxas grins at Axel. "We'll stay best friends no matter what. Even if the world will fall apart, we'll still be the best of friends forever."

"You know, for a moment I thought Saix was headed here to plague me again with horrible accusations."

"Oh, don't worry about him. He's currently sleeping soundly until… well, until the four calls for his aid. He has been their little watchdog since they usurped the control of the Organization from Xemnas. But don't worry, he never knows what I'm up to," Roxas tells Axel reassuringly.

"Speaking of Xemnas, what happened to him? I know he won't accept the fact that he's now a mere plaything for Larxene and Marluxia to command."

"Yeah… well, he just attacked Riku with Vexen just now. I heard Demyx singing about it minutes ago. His voice was like loud enough to wake the sleeping Heartless in here."

"They have no chance of beating Riku in here… especially not without the four's say-so. Wait, Riku's here? As in the real Riku?" Axel repeats disbelievingly.

"Uh-huh. Apparently, by sleeping with Sora, Riku has been dragged along with him into the Realm of Sleep. And that's all I know for now because I haven't heard Demyx inadvertently speaking of their plans out loud yet."

"I see. So what are you planning to do now, Roxas?"

"I'm going… to let you out here." Roxas takes a card from his pocket and hands it to Axel.

"What's this?" The redhead is puzzled at the card he is holding. He has never seen it before, even during his time in Castle Oblivion. It has picture of a girl with black hair in an Organization cloak.

"It's a card that will render yourself immune to the four's tampering with everyone in Sora's memory," Roxas explains. "Use it and you will gain temporary invincibility over their command on your powers."

"Whos is this and how'd you get this?" Axel points at the card.

"I'm Sora's 'other'. I should have some degree of manipulation in here so I made up a card. Only one copy though because now Larxene, Marluxia, Demyx and Zexion's control over Sora's memory are even more powerful than mine. And I cannot do anything anymore. The person in that card? That's another story."

Roxas then proceeds to leave.

"Where are you going, Roxas?"

He stops walking and looks back at Axel.

He tells his red-haired friend, "I have to leave for now, Axel. The four must be expecting to be back at my room right now."

"Take care then, Roxas." Axel bids goodbye to his friend.

"I hope to meet you back in Sora's dreams when everything's back to normal. Just to let you know, I am not really siding with the four because I realized that if you're just going to stay here when we're all going to be out there… I'd rather stay here with you."

"Of course, you aren't. If you are, why would you give me this card? It's not like those four suddenly turned soft on me nor had a use for me, right?"

Roxas gives Axel a wink and disappears into a Corridor.

"Thank you, Roxas. I'll be seeing you again once we're through with this mess," Axel says under his breath as he tries to melt the bars of his cage with his flame.

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"Ready, everyone? This is going to be blast! I hear footsteps coming this way already!" Demyx exclaims with much enthusiasm.

"Please be a little more quiet, Demyx." Zexion conjures up something that resembles a red Valentine's Day card. "This wouldn't be a surprise if he knew about it."

Suddenly, there is a knock on the door.

"Oh great… now who locked the door?" Larxene asks while tying up Marluxia's created roses into a bouquet. "Zexion, go get it."

"Would it hurt you to say 'please'?" Zexion walks up to the door and opens it while stuffing the card back to his pocket.

To the four Nobodies' surprise, Riku immediately holds the Soul Eater just at the level of Zexion's throat, saying, "Where is Sora? And what have you done to him?"

"Sora?" Larxene tosses the now-finished bouquet at Riku who catches it with his free hand. "Not a clue?"

"This seems… familiar…" Riku says as the scent of the roses reaches into his nose. "It's like I've had this similar bouquet before."

"Oh come on now, Riku. Now what oh what could that be? Have you knocked your head off so badly in your fight with Vexen and Xemnas?" Larxene starts to mock him again and laugh.

Marluxia gives Larxene a sign to stop aggravating Riku to which Larxene replies with a heavy sigh.

Still holding Zexion at knifepoint, Riku tries to recall that incident.

"Come on, dude. You're taking too much time. Marluxia, can I take this joke of a keyblade-wielder on? Maybe he can remember if I hit him harder!" Demyx stands beside Marluxia and Larxene.

Only inches away from getting his throat slashed, Zexion suggests that Riku take a closer sniff of the flowers as well as a closer look at them.

Although a little bit wary of Zexion's advice, Riku brings up the bouquet up to his face while maintaining the blade on the Nobody's throat.

He takes in a brief smell from the flowers and looks at them, observing every minute detail.

"Sora's bouquet? What is this doing in here?" Riku shouts angrily after realizing what it is.

"Calm down, you silly boy," Larxene attempts to pacify Riku's sudden outburst of anger. "This isn't like you to lose everything so quickly like this."

"Back off or else he gets it!" Riku warns the other three, threatening to kill Zexion.

Surprised by such reaction, Demyx, Larxene and Marluxia retreat a few steps away from Riku and Zexion. They do not seem to be taking any chances of letting Zexion get killed now.

The blue-haired Nobody then sneaks his hand into his pocket and takes out the red card. After which, he makes it seem that the card accidentally slips from his grasp.

Although Zexion's act goes unnoticed, Riku does manage to see the card fall onto the ground and peers at it for a moment before realizing what is and gasping out in shock.

"Sora's card…" He turns to Zexion and angrily demands, "Where did you get this? It's mine along with the bouquet of roses."

The Nobody merely laughs wryly. "Yours? Look at the labels more carefully, Riku."

"This bouquet doesn't have one."

"The card… I'm sure Sora was sensible enough to at least write something on the card before sending it to you with the flowers."

Riku then disperses his Soul Eater and walks to where Zexion dropped the card. He picks it up and the four Nobodies stare at him eagerly.

He opens it and reads:

**I really wanted to lie in a bed of roses.  
With you and only you.  
Being away from you for this whole time,  
It made me even want you more.  
I missed you so much.  
And I just want to lie by your side,  
Hearing your voice talk to me.  
I missed even the gentlest touch of your face.  
Even the never-ending rivalry between us.  
Because I know that we were meant for each other.  
And I don't want to leave you alone.  
For it has always been you who was in my heart.  
You and only you.  
Forever.**

**Loved you as always, Sora…**

He notices that the recipient's name at the top of the card is smudged. However, he perceives what looks like a letter "K" at the beginning of the name. It then comes to his senses that the roses are for Kairi not him.

"Where did you guys get this?" Infuriated, Riku turns to the Nobodies who are smirking. "And why is Kairi's name here? It should have been mine."

"Funny that you're asking us. You should have asked Sora," Marluxia says indifferently.

But before Riku could do anything else, Vexen barges into the room, knocking Riku off his feet as the doors hit the teenager.

"Vexen? Why I'm surprised to see you're alive right now!" Larxene says scornfully.

"Hey, Vexen! Now what were you thinking attacking Riku just like that?" Demyx adds to Larxene's insult and points at Riku who is just beside Vexen, trying to get up.

"Why don't you be more careful next time, Vexen? It's not polite to sweep guests off their feet," Zexion tells the long-haired Nobody as he walks over to help Riku up.

Judging from his horrified reaction, Vexen isn't exactly pleased that Riku has gotten to the Four before he did. Aside from that, he is also terrified of what the four are going to do to him since they know his betrayal to their side.

As soon as Riku gets onto his feet, he takes out his Soul Eater.

The Nobodies, except for Vexen, look at him unflinchingly and just grin. Vexen, on the other hand, puts himself before Marluxia, kneels and begins to apologize.

Marluxia ignores this and asks Riku, "So are you convinced now of Sora's infidelity to you?"

"No…" Riku answers although unsure of what to believe in.

While Vexen continues to beg Marluxia to spare his life, Larxene yawns and asks Riku if he would be willing enough to join their side and put an end to Vexen's incessant babbling.

"Yeah… and you guys thought that my singing was unbearable." Demyx laughs.

"What are you waiting for? He tried to eliminate you," Zexion urges Riku to kill Vexen.

"No! No, no, no! Don't do it, Riku! Don't!" Vexen flees from the four who intend to make Riku kill him.

"So? Are you killing him or what? You killed that miserable Nobody with dreadlocks, right? So why can't you do the same with that idiot?" Larxene glares at the boy who runs after Vexen.

Then, Vexen's death-shriek rings outside the room, echoing throughout the empty silent hall.

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_I am sorry that this chapter is only two cutscenes. I hope the next one will be better. This has so far been the longest. I love what I did to the dialogues though… hehe. Leave a review for me. Thankie!_


	16. Feeding Lies, Lies and More Lies

_Hey, guys! Inspired this time, by really cute non-yaoi (according to uploader) videos. Here's the link, go watch it! http:// www. youtube. com/watch?v=ZR5tTYbQ5vY and http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=wOiThT3JOyg. Just take out the spaces. It's so cute. I mean, cute not hot, okay? Anyways, here's the update. Enjoy! This is like the second longest chapter yet._

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**Narration: **While Sora confronts another foe, the Big Four are trying to coerce Riku to joining their cause. Now will good still prevail? Or will the Nobodies finally get out and wreak havoc once more, leaving Sora in his nightmares forver?

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Riku returns to what now appears to be a bigger rectangular room without the couches, tables or any other furniture he had noticed earlier before going out to kill Vexen. However, instead of one throne, there are four, all occupied by the four Nobodies he had met earlier.

From left to right, in Riku's point of view, are Zexion, Marluxia, Larxene and Demyx. All are watching Riku intently.

"Like our new castle? It looks much better now than before, right?" Larxene smiles with false innocence. "It's not surprising really. So… you want to join us?"

"Why would I join you?" Riku answers defiantly.

"Quick-tempered boy, are you? Now then, let's play nice or else somebody's going to get hurt." Marluxia turns to his right. "Do you agree with me, Zexion?"

"Of course, Marluxia," he answers to the pink-haired man.

He then faces Riku and tells him casually, "I do not wish to hurt you any further. But don't try and tempt me for our leader's word is the law."

"That's right, kiddo! Marluxia is the law here. Go against him and consider yourself enlightened," Demyx says agreeing with Zexion.

Riku takes in a deep breath and asks Zexion, "Then why did you try to torture me before?"

"If you must know, take a seat first, Riku." He snaps his fingers and an armchair appears behind Riku.

The boy, at first, hesitates to sit on it but after sensing that it is not booby-trapped or anything, he does and places himself in a comfortable position.

"The four of us, Demyx, Larxene, Marluxia and I, as you know have been dead for over two years now."

"Correction, I'm only dead for one year," Demyx interrupts.

"Anyways, before being rudely interrupted by my music-loving companion, we were dead. And Sora's memory, which was a combination of both memories of Roxas and his own after they merged, was only where we truly existed. Although at first we were only lifeless shells of our former selves, Sora began to dream about us one night…" Zexion continues before being cut short again.

"And that one night's dream turned out to be a horrible nightmare! Yet he couldn't resist trying to remember what it was he dreamt about. And the more he did, the more lifelike we became in his mind!" Larxene giggles in glee.

"I see…" Riku remembers that night now when Sora screamed for his name and he had to rush to the latter's room to check if Sora was okay.

"Each time the nightmares came back, it had only been the four of us who were being empowered with the new strength. Until one night, Sora was foolish enough to go back to sleep again. And so, we grasped the opportunity to take revenge on him." Marluxia smirks.

"But why am I here?"

"You are here because you were in the close proximity of Sora before we drew him into this realm, accidentally dragging you along. But at any rate…" Zexion tries to finish what he's trying to explain to Riku but is once again stopped by the latter.

"But why did you have to mentally torture me, Zexion? You're not answering my question!" Riku is now starting to lose his patience again.

"Something's wrong with him," Larxene whispers to Marluxia. "He's supposed to be calm and collected, right? Why is he suddenly acting like this?"

Demyx then suddenly blurts out, "Vexen's replica! This must be it!"

"What!" the other three Nobodies scream in shock although Marluxia sounds more outraged than shocked.

"That's right… that's one of Vexen's clones I stumbled into while just walking around the castle. And don't ask; I've already programmed it to destroy you four." The real Riku appears beside the replica.

"Vexen was a fool. But you too are a fool!" Marluxia stands up and summons his scythe. "Zexion, deal with the boy. Larxene and Demyx, take out the trash!"

"On the double!" Larxene and Demyx summon out their respective weapons and attack the replica.

"At once!" Zexion's lexicons now appear around the real Riku.

"You've never learned your lesson, have you? Well, I did say I'm not going to like this but you forced me to." The blue-haired Nobody laughs and transports Riku and himself into one of his lexicons.

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Sora finds another set of staircases. However, it is blocked by a giant gate.

"This looks out of place…" Sora scratches his head. "Why would there be a gate inside the castle? It's just not right."

"So are you!" A girl's voice shouts at him.

"Huh?"

He turns around to see two hooded figures. They take off their hoods and give Sora a nasty look.

"Namine? Kairi? I don't understand…"

"Don't play coy with us," Namine and Kairi say together.

The girls put out their hands to each other. And as they come in contact, a bright light envelops them.

Sora gapes in awe as he sees only figure in a cloak standing before him. Someone he doesn't know of.

"Who are you?" he asks the stranger in front of him.

"Me? The name's Xion. Never heard of me, huh?"

"Uhh…" Sora tries to think for one moment.

"Don't answer that. I'm sure you didn't because everyone actually forgot me. Even Roxas." She looks at Sora with furious eyes. "Roxas, your Nobody. Yes, he merged with you, right? However, there was still no memory of me."

He continues to stare at Xion.

"However, there was still one aspect of me that existed within Roxas, allowing me to indefinitely exist as a formless entity. And that would be dual-wielding capability he had. That ability kept me 'alive' all throughtout these years within him and now within you."

"But how could you…"

Xion wags her index finger at Sora. "I'm not done yet. Well, you see… Vexen recently made replicas out of your memories. A copy of Leon, a copy of Cloud, a copy of Namine, a copy of Kairi and a copy of someone I failed to notice as the last one was stashed away before being activated."

"Anyway, Vexen didn't know that by creating replicas out of your memories of Kairi and Namine, he was making two replicas which would merge into me. Why? Because I was formerly a replica of you that took on the shape of Kairi. As you can see, Kairi's connection to me allowed me to gain control of the Kairi replica. And I know you're not that dumb to figure out how I took control of the Namine replica too, right?" Xion asks.

"Well… umm…"

"Geez, you're dumber than I thought. I am linked to Kairi because I took on her resemblance. Namine is Kairi's Nobody. And so, Namine is also linked to me. Got it?" Xion raises her eyebrows.

"But why you? Not the Kairi I know?"

"Because her will was weak. I mean she is weak."

"So you have been working for the Nobodies all along?"

"Sounds correct. I thought I have to spell it out for you."

"So you want to get out of my mind too and exist as a complete being?"

"Umm… not quite. I just want to make my own friends proud of me by exterminating you!" Xion summons out her keyblade.

"You think Larxene and Marluxia are your friends. You must be joking."

"Does this tone and face look like I'm joking?"

"They're trying to use you!" Sora pleads for this black-haired girl not to fight him.

"Stop telling me what to believe in!" Xion charges at Sora. "They're my friends and they've accepted for who I am!"

"I really didn't want to do this but you're forcing me to." Sora draws out his keyblade and parries Xion's strike.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Come on, Riku. Just accept the fact that you're running away from who you are."

The boy covers his ears from Zexion's relentless taunting. He falls on his knees and Zexion stands before him.

"It's not that hard to give up on something that never existed, you know." The Nobody gives his hand to Riku. "Get up."

The silver-haired boy stands up as per Zexion's command.

"Now what?" he asks.

"Look at these." As soon as Zexion says the sentence, a bunch of pictures appear before Riku.

"Those are all Sora and Kairi… what about me? What are these?"

"These are Sora's memories. And look, he must have forgotten you." Zexion chuckles sarcastically.

Riku spots a picture of Sora on the beach. Beside him is a red-haired girl.

"That's supposed to be me! I remember that day on the beach! It's not Kairi who went with him. It was me! Look, those shorts. Those were the shorts he wore when he saved me from drowning."

"Really? Now why would he instead picture Kairi with him and not you?"

"I… I…"

"See? You don't know? Sora has left you for a girl, Riku."

"No! I refuse to believe it. He said he loved me!"

"Does this look like I'm lying to you?" Zexion shows another picture of Sora eating a paupu fruit with Kairi in The Secret Place.

Tears fill up Riku's eyes. He cannot believe it. After all he and Sora has been through, Sora would just cast him aside like a worthless toy.

Zexion goes over to Riku and pats his back comfortingly. "There, there. Don't cry. We were only trying to protect from further hurt. That's why we also 'hurt' you."

"Protect me?"

"Yes, Riku. We were. From this much pain... let's go back to the castle and meet up with my other friends who will help you. And please stop your crying." The Nobody gives Riku a handkerchief to wipe his tears.

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_Okay, I just love being so evil. It's just too easy! But… now I feel rather guilty toying with their minds. Cliffhanger? No, I just cut it from that portion because it's too much to bear… maybe for you guys._

_Let's start thinking what Zexion, Larxene and Marluxia would say the next chapter. And do say something about my explanation how Xion came to be here. Is it adequate enough so that I don't confuse you guys?_

_See ya next chapter. Leave a review for me!_


	17. Not Again, Not Again!

_Hey, everybody. Missed me? Well, here's an update to those who really persevered until this chapter. However, this isn't the end. Of course, you can see that. All the four main antagonists haven't been overcome... yet. But I feel guilty now for sending so many people to die. Waaah. Anyways, enough with my silly chatter and on to the story._

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**Narration: **After defeating Xion on the fifth floor, Sora is getting even guiltier for taking the lives of the blameless Nobodies whom the Big Four sent to do battle with him. And now, he resolves to do justice upon those who deserve it… if he survives, that is.

Meanwhile, Riku is further being misled into a trap by Marluxia, Larxene and Zexion. Will Riku finally give in to their trickery or will he eventually see through their deception?

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Xion gasps and falls on one of her knees. Sora stands still and observes her, watching what she's going to do now.

She lets go of her keyblade and shouts, "No! This can't be! Not again!"

Starting to cry, she then starts to fade back into nothing bit by bit.

"No, not again! I haven't seen them yet," she wails.

Sora looks at her, puzzled, and asks, "Who? Who are you looking for? And why?"

"Roxas and Axel… maybe… they were my… only friends." Xion falls backward, too weak to support herself on one knee.

Sora runs to Xion's side and cradles her in her arms.

"You wanted to see Axel and Roxas? Why?"

"Yes… maybe they… were the only ones… who cared for me…" Xion is having a hard time speaking as the pain of her body slowly being eaten away by the darkness is rather excruciating.

"Don't worry, Xion. I know how you feel. But did you really wanted to…"

Xion stops Sora from continuing. "No. I just wanted to see my friends. My real friends… but Vexen and the other four told me that if I got rid of you I might finally meet Axel and Roxas again."

She grimaces from pain as nearly half of her body is gone.

"Xion? Xion?"

No answer. Sora shakes Xion violently, as if trying to rouse her from a deep sleep.

"Xion! Xion!" Sora screams as the last of Xion's body disappears all together. Her face still wet with tears, calling out for the only one whom she cared for.

And a door materializes in front of Sora. It opens by itself, revealing another long and winding staircase.

"Well… whoever were those who were under the tricks of Larxene and Marluxia and slain by my keyblade, your deaths shall be avenged and I shall make sure that it is they who pay the price of their trickery," Sora vows to all those he couldn't remember anymore but was definitely defeated by him.

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"Riku, it's about time you finally deserted that two-timing cheating boyfriend of yours and come to have considered our point of view," the blonde woman tells the boy in an Organization cloak.

"She's right, Riku. After seeing all those memories of you and Sora actually being ones of Kairi and him sharing intimate moments, you are right to have joined us." Zexion pats Riku on the back comfortingly. "We're glad you see Sora the way we see him as well: an enemy!"

"You see, Sora must have drugged you all this time just so he can use you. Making you believe that he did love you… it's something that even I cannot bring myself to do. By the way, I forgot to give you this just in case if you still doubt our words." Larxene tosses a silver locket to Riku.

The boy catches it and as he looks at it he recognizes it to be the locket he gave to Sora in their first anniversary.

"Don't ask me. Ask him. I just found it on the floor after fighting him and knocking him out." She chuckles and leans on Marluxia who is standing right beside her. "What a heartless lover he really is. I cannot believe he'd just ditch an important thing such as that."

Larxene continues on, "Aside from that, he even tried to give you roses which weren't even supposed to be yours. What was he trying to do? Hmm… sharing a paupu fruit with you? Maybe he was just using you as a practice dummy! Yeah so that he would know what to do when he does those stuff to Kairi!"

"Now see? We're the good guys!" Demyx tries to convince Riku.

Riku looks at Marluxia.

"You see? The one whom you called your lover all this time has been nothing but a selfish two-faced liar. Replacing you with Kairi is one thing. But throwing that locket away is one thing too much." Marluxia extends his hand to Riku.

"So what do you say? You're with us or not?" Demyx asks. "We always have a spare chair to those who agree with us, you know."

Riku just stares at them, wondering deeply. Zexion notices this and approaches the boy.

"Well, we'll be giving you time to think about it, Riku. You will have your room, peace and quiet, and just enough time to think about your decision. We will accommodate you as we would to a king. Just remember, we only tried to hurt you before because wounds might hurt but they heal in due time but emotional pain is quite irreversible. I'm sure you know why." Zexion escorts Riku to his own somewhere else in the castle.

"Silly child…" Larxene laughs hysterically. "He actually didn't read the card properly now, did he? Zexion only changed the name on it. Riku is just so stupid! Like Sora!"

"Patience, Larxene. More fun is about to head our way now that Riku is almost within our grasp," Marluxia says.

"It's the same too with the paupu fruit. If only he had a better eyesight and a better brain… it's just too easy!" She laughs maniacally.

But then, Saix appears from a Corridor of Darkness.

He walks over to Marluxia and informs him that Axel has escaped.

"What! That guy is running around the castle now? At this moment?" Demyx is surprised by the news.

However, Marluxia dismisses it as an insignificant threat. "He wouldn't dare challenge us. After all, he may have escaped but he's still powerless."

"True. True. Can I destroy him after we're through playing with Sora and Riku?" the woman asks.

Marluxia merely nods and sends Saix away.

"Demyx, did you dispatch the replica to where it's supposed to be right now?" Marluxia looks at the musician.

"Of course, Marluxia. Everything's going to be running smoothly from here." Demyx laughs.

"It better be. You've messed up enough by sending Lexaeus before Xaldin."

"Don't worry. I'm sure I didn't do any mistake this time."

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Sora has reached the end of the stairs and finally lands a step on the fifth floor. He is panting for his breath because not only was he climbing the stairs but he was also fighting Heartless and Nobodies at the same time.

"Sora? Is that you?"

For a moment, Sora feels like he is partly dreaming as he is just so tired from climbing up those flights of steps. He rubs his eyes and looks in front of him to see his Nobody equivalent.

"Roxas! I should have known. Have they sent you here to deal with me?" Sora angrily challenges Roxas.

"No, you don't understand!" Roxas backs off.

"Yes, I do! And that act is just to make me lower my guard before you thwack my head to bits!"

"Look. The castle's in a ridiculous mess. And more than enough Organization members have been eliminated because of Larxene and Marluxia's attempts in toying with you and Riku! Come with me so that all this madness will stop!"

"You're just saying that because you want to lure me into a trap!"

"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about. I am here so that I can help you. Trust me!"

"Trust you? Why should I trust you? Well, I'm not buying it. You're obviously working with Larxene, Marluxia, Demyx and Zexion to get your bodies back."

"What? I don't need a body. I'm perfectly contented with my life here." Roxas continues to retreat slowly.

"You're just saying that to make me think that you're one of the good guys. And then, you shall strike me from behind when the time is right! Well, your tricks aren't working!" Rage burns in Sora's eyes.

"I'm not just saying it. I'm trying to tell you that I AM a good guy!"

"Guess what, Roxas! I'm not going to believe any word you're saying. Nice try to fool me!" Sora's keyblade appears in his hands.

"You don't get me, do you, Sora? You've got to understand. I'm not siding with Larxene and Marluxia." Roxas dodges both of Sora's swings.

Sora ignores this and continues attacking Roxas with all his might.

"What's the matter? Am I not a good enough opponent for you? Or are your bosses going to whip up a replica of me this time?"

"Okay then. It would only be fair if I tried to defend myself in this fight." Roxas summons his two keyblades and reluctantly engages Sora in combat. "And if you win which I do not doubt, I will show you a secret passageway to the tenth floor as a shortcut."

"All right. Prove it!" Sora replies.

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_Okay. I think this is pretty much it for now. I do hope this was a good update although I think it's much more of a filler. But yeah, Larxene's right. If you read the card carefully, you should've seen something there that wouldn't be written if the card's for Kairi. Hmm… noticed it?_

_And I wish the next chapter will be a little more exciting for you guys because more stuff are going to happen... hopefully. Leave a review please. Thanks!_


	18. Found the Little Snitch

_Hi there, guys! Wow, this must be one of my more successful works so far. I owe you guys for the reviews… really! Anyways, enough with my useless chatter which won't get us anywhere. Yeah, as I've left on the last chapter, something was definitely wrong with the card. If you reread it again, I'm sure you'll see what's so wrong there. I didn't notice it at first but then I was like that would perfectly make a good turning point later on. Okay, so have a happy reading!_

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**Narration: **While Sora picks a fight with Roxas, Riku is wondering if he should join the Nobodies' side. On the other hand, the Big Four are furthering their plan to try and manipulate him further.

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Roxas deflects the last of Sora's strike and knocks the keyblade of Sora's grasp.

Sora is exhausted. One, he just finished climbing an extremely long flight of steps. And two, he is out of energy yet he continues to pick a fight with Roxas.

He tries to push himself up and resume fighting with Roxas. However, he instead falls on the floor on his belly, tired but still conscious.

Roxas takes out a card and uses it on Sora. A bright green aura envelops Sora completely.

Seconds later, Sora is seen standing, apparently fully recovered.

"Believe me now? You know… if I was sent to kill you, I would have done it when you were lying helplessly on the floor," Roxas tells him as he approaches Sora cautiously since he does not know how his "other" might react now.

Sora stays silent for a moment.

"Look, I just saved your life. I mean, I would because now Larxene, Marluxia, Demyx and Zexion are on a senseless obsession with trying to get their bodies back and torture you to no end. Not to mention, they've captured Riku."

"I knew they had Riku… but is he okay?" Sora asks in concern for Riku.

"I don't know yet. But what I do know is that he's perfectly alive and breathing. Demyx told me that they're just doing some'tests' on him. But as far as I know, I heard Riku screaming in anguish the last time I was on the eleventh floor."

"Okay, I do believe you… although not completely. Show me where your 'secret stairs' to the tenth floor is first."

Roxas opens up a Corridor of Darkness. "Who said anything about taking the stairs when we can use the Corridors."

The Nobody puts his foot into the portal and sees Sora still standing, staring at him.

"Well? Are you going to rescue Riku or not? I am not leading you into a trap just in case you were wondering."

Roxas disappears into the portal.

Sora puts his hand on his chest and realizes that his locket is missing. He frantically searches all over his pocket for where he could have misplaced it.

He wonders where he could have left it before following after Roxas into the portal.

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Sora emerges out of the portal.

There is no sign of Roxas. However, he can hear footsteps coming towards him.

"Roxas?" he calls out. "Roxas? Where are you?"

The footsteps continue and seem to be coming from behind him.

Sora turns around to see a blindfolded silver-haired boy in a black cloak.

"Riku? Riku! Riku! I missed you!" Sora runs towards the hooded figure.

However, much to Sora's astonishment, the figure jumps away and draws a weapon that resembles Riku's Soul Eater.

"Riku? What's wrong?" Sora asks. "And aren't you glad to see me?"

"Glad to see you? I'll only be glad to see you when you're in pieces!" The figure charges at the keyblade-wielder.

"But I don't want to fight you, Riku. Not anymore! Not after what we've been through!" Sora dodges Riku's attack.

"What we've been through is all a lie!" Riku continues to slash viciously at Sora.

"A lie? But how could you say all those moments were a lie?"

"They were nothing more but lies. Lies so you could exploit me!"

"What do you mean?" Sora continues to evade Riku's attacks.

"You know what I mean! And you know what, I'm just so pissed that I fell for all your sweet words and your gifts!"

"Riku? Well, if you're mad at me for giving you all those tacky gifts, maybe because it's that I deserve it. And if seeing me dead is the only thing that would make you happy, then I shall let you have your wish." Sora stands still and waits for Riku to deliver the final blow.

Fortunately for Sora, in the nick of time, a keyblade hits Riku's blade and he is knocked out before he could rip Sora's throat into bloody shreds. He falls over just inches in front of Sora. Roxas appears behind Riku's back.

"Roxas?" Sora is too surprised to say a whole sentence.

"At your rescue." Roxas smiles at Sora. "Sorry for not being here earlier. I had to scout the place as we're not on the tenth floor. The four must have messed with my Corridor."

"But what did you do to Riku? What did you do to him? Will he be all right?" Sora asks, ignoring Roxas's statements.

Suddenly, a bunch of giggles are heard in the background. Roxas and Sora look around in surprise, trying to find out where the giggles are coming from. And then, Larxene appears.

"Knocked him out cold." She walks over to Riku's unconscious body and picks it up like it is just a lifeless doll. "More like killed him really!" She flings the body aside and it disintegrates into crystalline dust.

"Riku! No!" Sora puts his hands to his head.

After laughing at Sora's reaction, Larxene tells him, "Don't worry! That wasn't the real Riku so you're in luck that your memories of him won't be gone… yet."

"A replica?"

"Of course! What else would it be aside from a silly toy?" Larxene chuckles evilly.

Sora angrily turns to Roxas. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

Roxas takes a few steps back. "No! I'm certain that I had nothing to do with this. Why would I double-cross you?"

"That's right! He wouldn't sell you out." Larxene gives Roxas a skeptical look. "Right, Roxas?"

"Umm…" Roxas is not sure what to say.

"Oh well… ignore, Roxas," Larxene tells Sora. "Now, where were we? Ah yes, Riku's still on the eleventh floor. And this is… only the sixth floor. You still have five more floors to go before you reunite with your idiot boyfriend."

"You're a horrible person, you know that. Sending all your friends to die at my keyblade with promises that you and your accomplices would never fulfill."

"Don't call me that. After all, you're just as horrible as we are. Losing the locket that Riku gave you? Now that's even something I wouldn't even do!" Larxene feigns hurt.

"You're lying! I know you're the one who took it," Sora shouts out accusingly.

"Hmm… now if I took it… why I didn't! Now don't just jump to conclusions, Sora. Words are really painful," she says scornfully.

"Enough with your games! Where is Riku?" Sora summons his keyblade and lunges at Larxene.

The blonde woman sidesteps easily and punches Sora on the face. Not contented with that, she kicks Sora in the abdomen, sending him toppling backward.

She looks at Roxas. "Good work, blondie. Now get rid of him!"

Roxas hesitates for a moment.

"Do it!" she commands. "Do it or I'll slit your throat!"

Roxas goes over to Sora and summons his two keyblades. He looks at Sora and raises one of his keyblades.

"Sorry," he says apologetically as his strike follows through.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"I've made my mind."

Marluxia, Demyx and Zexion turn around and see Riku willingly approach them.

"I said I've made up my mind. I'm yours to command." He humbly kneels before the three Nobodies.

"On your feet. In our group, everyone is equal," Marluxia informs him.

"Glad to see you joined us. Of course, we knew you would. I mean, Sora is just a horrible boyfriend. Sheesh! Going through all that mess just so he can perfect his courtship things for Kairi," Demyx says, reading from a cue card disguised as a blank piece of paper by Zexion's illusion powers. Although he said it in such a way that one could not tell whether he is speaking his mind or just reading it.

"Yeah, Riku. Welcome to the… Organization!" Zexion shakes his hand.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be called 'Organization XIII'?" Riku asks.

"Oh, dear child. Thirteen isn't our number anymore. We're more of like six."

"If you're only six, who are the other members aside from you three? And who's the new leader now?"

"Well... we have Larxene, me, Zexion, Marluxia, Saix and Luxord," Demyx answers. "It's more of me, Zexion, Larxene and Marluxia who make the decisions. However, Marluxia does most of the leadership."

"Come on, Riku. We have a lot of plotting to do against Sora. And we'll be doing it in the way you want it." Marluxia smirks and beckons to Riku.

"Where's Larxene?" Riku asks.

"She's… err… fixing up some dessert," Demyx quickly answers, nudging Marluxia.

"Yeah, she's busy right now… fixing dessert." Zexion chuckles forcedly. "Yeah, she knows how hungry you are after all those emotions contained in yourself for the past few hours or so."

"I'm even amazed it only took him like about five hours to think about our offer," Demyx whispered to Zexion.

"It doesn't matter. As long as he's on our side, that's all that counts. Besides, our offer is too good to be refused by him," Zexion whispers back. "Humans are just too easy to mainuplate because of their hearts and the darkness inside them."

"What about Larxene? Do you think she'll be back here soon?"

"I don't know. But I hope she does. After all, she's just going to take care of that little snitch who freed Axel, right?"

"Hopefully." That is all Demyx can say.

The three then take Riku into the room which is a lot bigger than all the other rooms in the castle that he has been to.

"We've been waiting for you all this time. And we've been saving this room for a very special occasion," Marluxia informs Riku as they enter the room.

"That's right! We've been waiting for the time when Riku finally joins our side."

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_Okay, that's it for this update. I'll continue tomorrow... hopefully because stupid college is eating away my free time! Hehe. I hope this chapter was rather interesting. And don't tell me that I'm not original because I based some scenes of Re:CoM since I did. Although I still edited some stuff, I'm really guilty of that. So sue me! HAHAHA! Anyways, leave a review for me. Thanks! See you guys on the next chapter!_


	19. Two Threats and the Nymph is Down

_The nineteenth chapter! Wow, I bet the story's somehow getting on your nerves, huh? I suppose so because Larxene appears every now and then to torture Sora. I'm sorry but I'm a really huge fan of her. Hehe. But this story is not biased on her! Anyways, the story is getting to the near end now… I think. Have a happy reading on this one, guys! Hope you all like it as much as you all did with the previous chapters._

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**Narration: **Larxene faces off against Sora once more. Will Sora win this time or will she see to it that our hero's fate shall be ended in her savage hands? And what about Riku? Is he really serious about joining forces with the Nobodies?

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Before his strike physically connects, Roxas turns on Larxene and attacks her with quick and powerful strikes.

Sora watches as the Nobodies exchange attacks with none of the blows coming in contact until Larxene grabs hold on Roxas's hair, stopping the boy from attacking any further.

"You little wretch! So it's definitely you who freed Axel!" She tugs even more at the poor Nobody's hair.

Roxas doesn't answer.

Larxene relinquishes her grip on his hair and glares at him.

"Answer me, you little twit, or you'll regret the rest of your life wandering through the dark cold corridors of loneliness and isolation!" she shouts as the last trace of her playful manner vanishes.

He still doesn't answer.

"You knew that making Sora suffer terrible emotional pain was our plan this time. You really took on your friend Axel." Larxene slaps him on the face. "Now, you spill our plans and turn on us? If you just killed this little wimp, I could have just let this 'little free-my-best-buddy-from-jail' pass as if it was nothing. But no! You wanted to be a hero like your 'other'. Well, no matter, I'll deal with him. This is will be a lot of fun!"

She walks past Roxas and proceeds to Sora who is still lying helplessly on the floor.

Roxas tries to attack Larxene once more. This time, she ducks and punches Roxas right in the stomach.

"I'm not in an exactly cheerful mood right now. You're really getting on my nerves, boy! Thanks to you, half of my plans are ruined!"

Roxas drops on the floor, gasping for air as that last hit really hurt.

"Know what? You better go back on our side because last time I checked you're just another insecure baby who's hiding behind that tough face of yours!" Larxene kicks Roxas aside, sending him crashing to a wall. Roxas immediately passes out after the impact.

"Roxas," Sora says as he tries to get up.

"What's this? You obviously think that Nobody of a hero would help you? Can't you see? He led you to this place… where a trap was waiting for you."

"No. Roxas wouldn't do such a thing. I know him. He… is me."

"A few minutes ago you didn't even trust him and even got mad at him for knocking out Vexen's replica of Riku! Now you're all like 'he wouldn't do such a thing'," Larxene screams at him.

"Who's Vexen?" Sora rudely interrupts Larxene.

"You don't know who Vexen is? Oh, that's a pity. And it will all be the more pitiful when I'm going to bludgeon you to bits!"

"He helped me get here. So I'm going to… repay the favor." Sora uses up one of his last five Cure cards.

Larxene glares at him. "You're really a stubborn person, you know that. Well… if you want a fight, I'll give you a fight. No assistance means a fair fight this time around. And I shall see to it that you're going down ALONE!"

She summons her knives and attacks Sora.

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Two men are doing their usual rounds at the eleventh floor. This has only been implemented just recently after a report of the traitor escaping reaches Marluxia's ears.

"Say, Saix. Why is Marluxia taking such a particular interest on that lanky silver-haired lad? I do not seem to remember him from our encounters in The Castle That Never Was." The first figure faces his companion as he lets down his hood.

"Luxord, it's really simple. Our new leaders want to take revenge on Sora," Saix says in a dull as-a-matter-of-factly tone.

"If that was another simple revenge plan, why didn't we just kill him the moment he stepped into this castle? I mean, they wanted revenge, right?"

"Physical pain isn't the only thing they're after, Luxord. They want to hurt Sora in the most painful way bit by bit. You know, you really should remember that people, like Sora, can be so weak when you consider their capacity to feel emotions."

"Oh, I see. But why couldn't they just pit that fool with his other foolish friend? And then, we'd just kill whoever remains standing. Isn't that a better idea?"

"I suppose so. But our new Superiors know better so we go as planned."

"But if they're better than us, why did they just lock up Axel? I mean, they should have killed him when they had the chance since they view Axel as such a threat."

"I do not question their motives, Luxord. If you were a loyal follower and put your trust in our leaders, you'd do the same."

"But, Saix…" Luxord stops as Saix then holds his claymore on his right hand.

"If I were you, Luxord, I'll rather obey than complain. I'm sure that they know what they're doing. You do know that treachery will not be tolerated. Besides, they have other things to worry about so we'll have to be the ones who would dispose of any other threats. Understand?"

Luxord sighs. "Okay, Saix. I get you… no need to threaten me with your claymore."

Saix disperses his claymore and continues to patrol the eleventh floor with Luxord.

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Larxene gasps as she backs away, clutching her side.

"No! No! This can't be," she says. "No! I refuse to lose again this time! Not that I had the upper hand! And definitely not to some brat like you!"

"Where's Riku?" Sora asks her again.

"What? After all this time, you really haven't learned anything, have you? I'm not just going to tell you! Because then, it would be all too easy!" Larxene giggles at him as she slowly starts to fade. "See you around when my other comrades beat you! Ta-ta! Don't forget to say 'thank you'."

Sora runs toward the woman who is now halfway to completely disappearing.

"Tell me where Riku is!"

"Eleventh floor, silly. So don't even try if you know you can't face all three of them at the same time. Demyx and Zexion will make quick work out of you! And you'll never see your beloved Riku again!"

Larxene continues to laugh until she entirely vanishes into the darkness.

Sora rushes over to Roxas who has slowly recovered from his short but painful confrontation with Larxene.

"You okay?" Sora asks Roxas.

"Now that I've seen one of them gone, I sure am."

"Easy now. Let me help you get up."

Roxas puts his arm around Sora who helps him up.

"Thanks. She nearly had me there. Nearly killed me those little punches and kicks." Roxas smiles at Sora.

A portal appears right in front of them.

"Well then, shall we proceed?" Sora asks in concern of Roxas's state.

"You have to. Don't think about me. I'll be fine once everything's over."

"You sure?" Sora raises his eyebrows.

"Of course. Axel and I will be meeting again soon… after we take care of the other three and their last two followers."

"Tell me, who are the rest of the Nobodies that I have to fight in order to get to Riku?"

"Well, let's see… you already know two which are Zexion and Demyx. Saix and Luxord as well. But the brains behind all this is Marluxia."

"The lord of Castle Oblivion?"

"Exactly. But we don't have much time. I heard they were going to do something very horrible to your friend."

Roxas then pushes Sora into the portal before going in after him.

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Seated around the circular table are Marluxia, Zexion, Demyx and Riku.

Three of them are engaging in a friendly conversation to pass the time by until Larxene gets back while Marluxia, on the other hand, is deep in thought about their next moves.

Suddenly, in the midst of the three's conversation, Zexion goes over to Marluxia.

"Umm… Marluxia, one of the more powerful scents in the castle has seemingly disappeared," Zexion whispers in Marluxia's ear.

The pink-haired man's eyes widen in shock.

"What? There are only six of us… who went down? It better not be Larxene."

"Sad to say, it is Larxene… she has been defeated. And I have a feeling that the keyblade-wielding Nobody and the brat had something to do with it," Zexion replies.

"Has Axel showed up yet?"

"Not that I know of. His scent is nearly undetectable for the moment. It seems that something is cloaking him. Not to mention, he's holding something that's disrupting our control of his powers."

"I see… well, now we have two problems instead of one." Marluxia rises up from his seat.

Demyx and Riku stop talking and look at him, waiting for his orders.

"Demyx, go get Luxord and tell him to keep our other visitor busy. And try to kill the traitor while at it. If Luxord goes down fighting, I assume that you would be kind enough to buy some time for Zexion, Riku and I to formulate a counterattack," he orders Demyx.

"All right!" Demyx answers quite happily and goes off.

Marluxia then motions to Riku as he and Zexion start coming up with ideas on how Riku can exact revenge on Sora to which Riku responds with an evil smile.

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_That's it for this update! Weeeee! I'm kind of sorry that I just killed Larxene off like that. I really liked writing her lines! We were just so alike! Hahaha. Oh well… the story must go on... with or without her! And ooooh, what's this? Has Riku crossed the dark side for good? Hmmm... let's find out on the succeeding chapters. So yeah, that's it for now. Leave a review for me. Thanks!_

_I hope to put up the next chapter as soon as possible. But, ugh, semi-finals are coming up to stop me so please bear with me if I don't update by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Hehe._


	20. Unfriendly Gambling

_Hey, we have chapter 20 right now! I hope you'll love this update. I'm sorry, Larxene! Waaaaah. She's gone! Anyways, enjoy this chapter and have a happy reading._

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**Narration: **As Sora and Roxas proceed to the seventh floor, there seems to be another danger lurking by… or is it? What has Marluxia and Zexion have in store for Sora this time? How about Axel? Where is he in the castle? And what about Riku? Will he eventually kill Sora in the end? Only time will tell.

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Roxas and Sora walk through the halls of the seventh floor cautiously. The spotless white walls seem to hiding an ominous fortune awaiting these two.

As the two pass by partially opened room, Roxas catches a glimpse of a hooded figure. He takes a few steps back, leaving Sora to go ahead as he checks to see to who that figure really is.

Sora notices this and grabs onto Roxas's shoulder. "Where are you going?"

"I think I saw Axel!" Roxas takes Sora's hand off his shoulder and runs back to verify if the hooded figure is indeed Axel.

"Roxas, wait up!" Sora runs after him.

But it is no use. Roxas is too fast and within minutes, he disappears from Sora's view.

"Roxas! Wait up!" Sora chases after him.

Meanwhile, Roxas arrives back at the place where he is certain to have seen a cloaked figure. He pushes the door open and goes in.

The room is empty as with all the other rooms on the floors lower than the eleventh. In the dead center of the room is the figure he saw earlier.

"Roxas… you should not have betrayed us, you know." The figure wags his finger at the boy. "The others are not in a very pleasant mood at the moment."

The door closes behind him.

Roxas jumps back in shock. This person or whoever is standing in front of him isn't Axel because of the voice's noticeable accent.

"Right you are, little runt. I'm not your buddy Axel," the figure says as he puts his hood down, revealing a blonde man.

After gasping in shock, Roxas is then surrounded by a group of cards when Luxord snaps his fingers.

Soon, the cards start revolving around the boy and he starts to become dizzy.

"Roxas?" Sora bursts into the room, perfectly sure that this is the one Roxas has gone into as all the other rooms on this floor are locked.

Luxord looks at the new intruder and appears to be even more delighted that Sora has showed up.

"Sora! You're just in time for a new game that I, Luxord, have come up with!" Luxord claps his hands and the cards surrounding Roxas fall flat on the floor, revealing only air in place of the blonde Nobody.

"What have you done with Roxas?" Sora's temper suddenly rises and he summons out his keyblade.

"Better keep your temperament under your control if you want to win this little match and your friend!" Luxord taunts Sora further.

Gripping even more tightly to his keyblade, Sora glares at Luxord before charging into him.

Luxord merely snaps his finger summoning a card in front of him.

Sora slashes through the card but nothing happens.

"Over here, you funny pipsqueak! Moving a little too slow right there!" Luxord yells from the other end of the room.

This time, he snaps his fingers, summoning about fifty-two cards around the room.

"Why don't we put a friendly gamble on each of our heads?" Luxord suggests before finally engaging Sora in combat. "And then let's see who wins the game, shall we?"

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Axel has been sneaking around the castle, slowly ascending the floors by defeating one or two powerful Heartless on each floor.

He is now currently at the eighth floor, looking for his blonde-haired Nobody friend.

He comes across an open room.

Out of curiosity, he goes inside and sees that it looks very much like the Room of Sleep in Hollow Bastion.

"But… wait, Roxas did say that the four are slowly changing the very structure of Sora's memory as they slowly take control of Sora's mind…" Axel says to himself.

Then suddenly, a breeze hits his face. He smiles as it reminds him of one of those days when he and Roxas were eating sea salt ice cream in Twilight Town.

However, he notices that there is no window in this room for the breeze to come in.

And then, he plunges into one of memories…

"_Axel! What do we do now, buddy? We just kicked major Heartless butt on our last mission!" Roxas exclaims happily to the redhead._

"_Yeah, I think this calls for a celebration!" Axel agrees with his friend._

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"Let's check the winning hand and see who has lost the bet!" Luxord taunts Sora.

However, Sora manages to bring Luxord out of his cards.

"It must be you then," Sora says while he charges at Luxord with his keyblade.

"Me lose? Oh well, I may have lost the game but I'm not going to lose my life!" Luxord summons a set of cards around himself as a shield as Sora closes in on him and slashes through all of them.

The cards disappear along with Luxord, revealing nothing but an empty space.

Sora disperses his keyblade and is about to leave the room when he realizes that Roxas is still missing.

"Roxas? Roxas?" he calls out.

No response.

"Roxas! Where are you!" he shouts.

Then, he hears somebody laughing behind him.

He turns around and sees Demyx with Roxas who is trapped inside a card. The musician is leaning on the card, smiling at Sora.

"Let Roxas go!"

"Can't I hear a 'pretty please'?" Demyx asks.

"Let him go or…"

"Or what?" Demyx summons his sitar and positions it right above the Roxas/card. "Or you'll kill me? Not if I kill this one first."

Sora is frozen with horror. He needs Roxas to guide him safely so that he can advance on to the next floors without much trouble.

"Well, all right. Let's have a little dancing competition first!" Demyx summons several water forms which encircle Sora.

"See you upstairs. You won't be able to proceed unless you beat all the clones!" The music-loving Nobody waves goodbye before taking Roxas/card with him into his Corridor of Darkness.

"Don't worry, Roxas. I'll save you!" Sora says as he starts to destroy Demyx's water clones one at a time.

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_But before he and Roxas can go out for some ice cream, somebody warps into their room._

_It is Saix._

_He goes over to Axel and tells him, "Axel, the Superior wishes to meet you about something urgent."_

"_But Saix… can't it…"_

_Saix cuts the redhead in midsentence. "No. Like I said, it is urgent that you go to him immediately."_

_After that, Saix leaves just as quickly as he came in._

"_Well, sorry, buddy. I got to go. Saix did say it was important."_

_Roxas hangs his head._

_Axel goes over to Roxas and gently put his hand on the blonde's shoulder._

"_I'll make it up to you, Roxas. Some other time. I promise!" Then, Axel goes off to see Xemnas._

The memory then ends abruptly as Axel hears a series of grunts growing louder and louder, nearing the room.

He readies himself for an attack from whoever is approaching.

But then, he lets his guard down when the door opens and reveals Luxord, holding on to his abdomen.

"Luxord?"

The man seems surprised to see Axel standing right in front of him. "Axel? What are you doing here?"

"Actually, I was going to ask you the same question. Where's Roxas?"

"Roxas?" Luxord chuckles. "Demyx has probably taken care of him by now after I turned him into a card. At any rate, we knew that it was he who freed you. What a silly child, he thought that we wouldn't know!"

"What did you do to Roxas?" Axel summons up his chakrams.

"Slaughter me if you must as if I were livestock. But you gain no honor in doing so." Luxord continues to laugh. "To kill one who has been weakened by another merely shows that you are a scavenger. A worthless cowardly scavenger."

Unaffected by Luxord's comment, Axel draws closer to him and strikes Luxord down with both of his chakrams with the gambler still laughing at him.

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"Marluxia, another scent has disappeared," Zexion informs the pink-haired man.

Marluxia seems unfazed by this. He just tells Zexion to go on as planned.

"But how? Larxene has fallen. How can we continue? Without her, our plan is somewhat of a mess." Zexion answers. "Besides, when I plan something, it usually only suits me. Isn't that why Larxene and I usually had to rack up our brains so that we can think of something that would match our fighting styles?"

"Right…" Marluxia stops to think for a while.

Meanwhile, Riku just curiously looks at them.

He is wondering about when he will be fighting with Sora. He really wants to get even with that cheating boyfriend of his.

And for the past few hours, he has noticed that of the many scents in the castle one of them grew faint. However, just now, he detects that another scent has faltered. But this one eventually died out.

He wonders if Demyx can indeed buy them some time since Riku is getting really impatient.

"I do hope that Demyx's fight won't take long," Riku says to himself. "I'm really eager to punch that bastard's stupid smiling face."

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_That's it for now! Stick around for the next update! Maybe tomorrow! Haha…_

_Riku's being mean. Why does he want Demyx to easily lose to Sora? Waaaahhh! And what's this? One of the scents just grew faint? Hmm… but who's telling the truth: Zexion or Riku? And what about Roxas????_

_Argh! Well, let's find out on the next chapter. Or the one after that! See ya and please leave a review for me._


	21. Listen to The Moon's Song

_Twenty-first chapter… wow, this is good. I'm sorry if I'm so evil. I had been listening to Holy Thunderforce and Emerald Sword while doing the last chapter. And so, I really got that mean and diabolical. Ahahaha. Anyways, I hope I didn't leave you guys hanging by your spleen or appendix on my last update because that's not cool. Hehe. So here we go. Have a happy reading as always!_

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**Narration: **Sora is able to defeat Luxord although not kill him. But in the end, Luxord is still killed by Axel as the blonde Nobody does a wrong turn on the eighth floor.

However, despite the fact Sora forces Luxord to flee, he still has not reclaimed his friend yet. To make matters worse, Demyx arrives and takes the playing card Roxas is trapped in. Can Sora save his Nobody this time? And what about Riku? Will he finally meet face to face with Sora only to crush him?

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"Nice of you to not keep me waiting! So are we going to start?" Demyx smiles as Sora finally arrives at the next floor.

"Where's Roxas?"

"Roxas? Who's Roxas? Oh, right... Roxas. Over there stuck in one of Luxord's card." Demyx points to the other end of the room.

"Who's Luxord?"

"Oh, forget who's Luxord. Just look over there," Demyx sighs.

Sora looks over to where the Nobody is pointing and sees the playing card Roxas is in is being held by several of Demyx's water forms.

"Let him go! He has nothing to do with this!"

"But he has… besides, now that Larxene's gone, I have to eliminate him along with you!" Demyx summons his sitar.

"I don't remember you being this aggressive before." Sora goes into his battle stance.

"Let's just say that I'm a lot more aggressive than you think I am!"

"No, you're not. You've always run away from our encounters before."

"Well, you shouldn't judge people by their looks or by what they do." Demyx snaps his fingers and all of his water forms proceed to break the playing card Roxas is in.

Sora tries to go and help Roxas but he is hit by a ball of water.

"Going somewhere? You're going to have to deal with me before you go help him!" Demyx starts playing his sitar and a huge pillar of water erupts from the ground in front of Sora, nearly hitting him.

"Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking to you? I'm going to let you through unless you beat me… which in this case I don't think so."

Before Sora can answer, he hears the sound of cardboard ripping apart.

He looks back at Roxas and stares in helplessness and horror as Demyx's water forms rip the playing card apart with Roxas's mouth wide open screaming for his life. However, as he is trapped in the card, no sound escapes from his mouth.

Demyx grins. "You still want to play or should our little hero give up while he's already behind?"

"I'm not going to forgive you for this!" Sora says angrily as he faces Demyx.

"Enlighten me then!" Demyx commands his existing water forms to attack Sora.

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Suddenly, the castle shakes. Marluxia and Zexion stagger to keep their balance while Riku, completely caught off-guard, falls on the floor.

However, he breaks his fall with his right arm.

Soon, the tremor subsides.

Riku gets back up and faces Zexion and Marluxia. "What just happened?"

"Demyx…" Zexion mutters and turns to Marluxia. "Is no more…"

"Hmm… it seems as if Sora is not leaving us any chance to proceed." Marluxia continues to keep his composure. He is neither surprised nor scared that within a few more fights the keyblade master will be coming for Riku.

"Let me fight him!" Riku cries out.

"Are you sure you want to face him now?" Marluxia asks earnestly.

"I have a score to settle with him."

"Very well… you may go and fight him. However, you need to prove to us one last time that you will do anything for us."

"Sure. What is it? I'll do whatever you guys want me to do… as long as I finish Sora with my own two hands."

Marluxia seems pleased after hearing this but he still continues on to his request. "We need you to take out some treacherous redhead who's roaming around the castle. You wouldn't want him to get to Sora first, now would you?"

"Certainly not." Riku opens up a Corridor of Darkness and disappears into it.

"Wow, Marluxia… you really do intend to make good use of the boy." Zexion puts his hand on Marluxia's shoulder. "But what if we still can't control him? In his heart, I can still sense that feeling of his pumping forever as strong as before." Zexion is sounding slightly worried and doubtful of their plan's success.

"Don't worry, Zexion. As far as I know, we can always take them out anytime we want to. So Riku better be careful not to let that emotion get the best of him." Marluxia smirks.

"Should I tell Saix that he's next?" Zexion asks before he is about to leave.

"Go ahead. Seeing Demyx and Luxord haven't bought us enough time after Larxene fell, he better put up more of a challenge."

Then, Zexion disappears into a Corridor of Darkness.

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"No! Not again! Not this way!" Demyx stumbles backwards before falling flat on the floor.

The sitar on his right hand disappears.

"Man, you got to cut me some slack!" He slowly gets up and faces Sora, slowly starting to fade. "You're taking this way too seriously!"

"I think you guys should just give up," Sora tells Demyx.

"Oh no. We're not giving up yet. The fun has just begun Sora… or at least it's going to end soon. And trust me, we're going to like every one bit of it." The musician puts on a dark smile on his face.

"Where's Riku?"

"You never learn, do you? I'm not just going to accept defeat and tell you. Well then, as we always say, be a good kiddo!" Then, Demyx finally disappears into the darkness.

Then, another portal appears in front of Sora.

However, he does not enter it yet. He goes over to where Roxas's card was ripped in half. The card has rapidly disintegrated into dust but amidst all that there is a hint of red which captures Sora's attention.

He takes it out. It looks like the same Valentine's Day card he had given to Riku.

After opening and reading its contents, he sees a piece of paper taped at the back of the card.

It reads:

_Sora, by the time you have read this, I know I will have been eliminated by then as I have committed treachery to this order of Nobodies under Marluxia's control. This is one of your most important memories of your days loving Riku. I'm sorry if I pried too deep in your head and took this out but I know you'll need this sooner or later. Promise. Roxas…_

Wondering about the Roxas who wrote it, Sora takes off the note, crumples it and throws it aside. Then, he just puts the card in his pocket and walks into the portal.

And upon emerging out of it, he is greeted by a blue-haired man with an X-shaped scar on his forehead.

"I see that you have taken down over one-half of my superiors… I am not pleased." Saix summons out his claymore.

"What have you done to Riku?" Sora pulls out his keyblade.

"Riku? I haven't done anything to him. But I'm sure you want to see him right now, don't you?"

"Of course, I do!"

"Hmm… then that's too bad because you have reached the end of the line, kid."

"Then, I'd have to get through you!" Sora gets into his stance.

"Very well. If you insist, silly child. Remember, the power of the moon is still on my side."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You'll find out… as soon as you're finished!" Saix leaps up with his claymore and readies to bash Sora's head with it.

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_Oh no! I just killed Roxas! Waaaaaaahhhh! Demyx too! I feel like my heart's going to break into tiny bite-sized pieces! I'm just so evil! But anyways, where's Axel now? Isn't he on the eighth floor too? Well, let's find out on the next chapter. Leave a review for me, pretty please? Thanks!_


	22. Blooming during the Night

_Chapter Twenty-Two! I feel bad… yet I feel so evil. Ahahaha. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill Roxas… it was his fault! He shouldn't have messed around with stuff. But then again, yes, Axel will totally burn me into a sizzling crisp! So yeah, I'm fine with that. I hope it's not so painful because it sounds like it is. Ahahaha. And I totally ran out of lines for Saix. Anyways, here's the next update! Err… I'm adding those five-second cutscenes in mid-battle starting from this chapter in some fights._

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**Narration: **With Roxas finished before his eyes, Sora proceeds to the next floor alone and faces Saix. But it seems Sora has the upper hand as there is no moon to give Saix extraordinary strength… or is there?

Meanwhile, Marluxia and Zexion are about to make really good use of Riku in eliminating the traitor Axel once and for all. Will their plan succeed in the end?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Saix dodges Sora's attack and lands a few feet away from him.

"I thought you said this was the end of my line." Sora glares angrily at the Nobody.

"It is. Well, prepare to say your dirge, dear boy. Moonlight shines upon the weak and the powerful alike although you're not one of the powerful ones so I guess I should finish you off," Saix tells Sora.

"Huh? There's no moon in here." The keyblade-wielder looks around.

"Guess again, kid!"

At once, the ceiling disappears and reveals a huge moon, reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts. Sora stares in both horror and wonder as to why a moon is hovering above the ninth floor. It seems illogical for a moon to be on top of the floor.

"Feeling a little confused? Well, let me tell you something, Sora. My masters are beginning to slowly dictate over your memories. Manipulating some of the things that you have remembered. I'm sure you don't mind."

"Well, it's not going to happen. I'm going to get through you and stop them."

"That is… if you can! Moonlight shine upon me and bestow upon me your divine power!" A beam of moonlight shoots from the Kingdom Hearts-like moon and concentrates on Saix.

After merely seconds of being imbued by the moon's power, a now more savage-looking Saix looks at Sora and smirks at him.

"Well, now I have the irresistible urge to see you die fighting!" Saix brandishes his claymore. "I'm going to make sure that you're going to end up in pieces!"

"I am not going to lose… especially now when Riku needs me!" Sora readies his keyblade.

"Who said he needed you, Sora? After all, you weren't there to save him when he needed you! So why should he come out and call for your help. Foolish boy, I shall make quick work of you!" The Nobody then leaps into the air, ready to unleash a series of attacks at Sora again.

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Axel has just defeated all Dusk Nobodies in the room he is in when a Corridor appears and out comes a hooded figure.

"Marluxia," Axel growls. "Where's Roxas? And what have you done to him?"

"Roxas? Hmm… not a clue. Why don't you ask my new accomplices?" The figure takes off his hood and reveals his face to Axel. "They just might have the faintest idea of his whereabouts. Rather his faintest whereabouts. Or better yet whatever remains of him."

"Accomplices? You're joking…. Marluxia and Zexion are never the stick-to-being-someone-else's-accomplices kind of people. You must be the Riku everyone's been talking about, aren't you? What have you done to Roxas? Is he… dead?"

"Correct on both questions. I'm impressed. But it's just too bad because I'm not going to believe every word you say, traitor!"

"Take it easy now. You don't even know me. How can you call me a traitor?" Axel backs off a bit.

"You're the one who caused their deaths in the real world, Axel. How could I not know? They're my accomplices. And if I believed every word you say, then you'd probably just eliminate me as soon as I turn my back on you." Riku points at Axel with his Soul Eater.

"You're smart… but not very smart. Now why would I eliminate you? For what reason? Obviously I have to have a reason for doing things, right?"

"You're right. You do have reasons for doing things. So… I'm guessing you'll probably eliminate me as soon as I'm no use to you!"

"Not even close, my friend. You should give me a chance now, right? You barely even met me yet."

"I may have not met you. But I have been told that you reek of treachery and lies. And that's how you're going down!" Riku goes into his battle stance, ready to fight with Axel.

"I'm not in the mood to pick fights with you."

"Well then, surrender yourself and just die!" Riku charges towards Axel who jumps out of the way.

"Okay… if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get. I hope you put on quite a show for me!" Axel summons his chakrams.

"No problem. I'll gladly bring your head back to Marluxia and Zexion!"

"Try me!" Axel grins.

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"Marluxia… Zexion… why have I lost?" Saix sinks on his knees as the moon disappears from overhead. He drops his claymore on the ground.

Soon enough, the ceiling returns and the room is as normal-looking as it was before the fight.

"Now, will you tell me what Marluxia and Zexion are planning to do with Riku?" Sora asks the Nobody.

"Never. My loyalty lies on their side and I will never betray them even if death claims me. See you around… Sora!" Saix then disappears into the darkness.

"Darn… another possible lead gone. I have two more floors to go before I can finally see Riku again." Sora then turns his back.

But then, Marluxia appears in front of him.

"I must applaud you for actually taking out the last pawn. He was the last line of loyal followers remaining in this castle. Then again, he must have been really weak to have caused you no trouble at all," he tells Sora.

"What do you want, Marluxia? Surely you're the one behind all of this." Sora looks at Marluxia with hatred.

"Yes… unfortunately, you have taken out two of my collaborators on the preceding floors. And until now, our new follower Riku still hasn't come back yet from his assignment to get rid of Axel. Well, I'll entertain your questions for now." Marluxia summons his scythe.

"You've got to be kidding. Riku joined you? You're lying. He can't. He wouldn't!"

"Denying the truth… well, it seems you lack intelligence. Either that or you only pay heed to your ignorance. But that won't matter. I shall see to it that the shackles of reality will get through that badly informed head of yours."

"Riku will never join you guys. He never will."

"But he has, Sora. And sorry to say for you, he will be the one to cause your equally unfortunate denouement." Marluxia leers at Sora. "Allowing the rest of us to get out of here and back into the real world with our bodies again! Adding to your bad luck when you're defeated under his two hands, you will remain here along with your nightmares… forever!"

"That's not going to happen, Marluxia!"

"You're always the imbecile you were and always will be. Why don't you change that stubborn attitude of yours and just give up? Prepare to meet your demise after our battle!"

Sora readies his keyblade for the upcoming battle.

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_Sorry for the short chapter. The updates will be a lot shorter now. Ehehe… and the next update might be a long while because my mom's coming here to nag me. Hahaha… so yeah, she'll be taking over the computer for one week. I'll try to see what I can do to update. Hmmm... Axel. What to do? And I still have two Nobodies left? Have you guys noticed something strange within the dialogues? If you haven't, please reread the dialogues each time a member is beaten. I think you'll be able to tell what's going to happen next if you do find it out. Hehehe... I'm sorry about Roxas though! Anyways, please leave a review. Thanks._


	23. Roses and Ashes in the Wake

_Finally, I managed to put up this update! So here's the Twenty-third update. Err… you got the Saix line right but haven't you noticed something else in the dialogues??? Hmm… okay then. Enough chitchat and on to the chapter. Happy reading, guys! I'm still bummed about killing off Larxene and Demyx. Their lines were so much fun to make up. I'm such a heartless person! Waaaaaahhh! Anyways, yeah go on to the chapter while I lament my heartlessness by myself. Go on…_

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**Narration: **While Sora fights Marluxia just after defeating Saix, Riku is sent to deal with Axel. Will Axel be eliminated this time as a traitor? Will Riku realize that he is just being used? Will Sora survive this encounter with Marluxia as he did before? And more importantly, will he and Riku get out alive?

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Sora is panting for his breath. His match with Marluxia this time seems to be exhausting him, considering that he has been fighting three consecutive battles without rest.

"Where are you keeping Riku?" Sora tries to catch his breath between words.

Marluxia smiles at the mention of this. "You are a really ignorant imbecile, Sora. Why do you insist on bringing back someone who has willingly left you for our side? What difference does it make that you've killed all our henchmen to get this far and all the while being told that Riku is now with us perfectly on his accord?"

Ignoring Marluxia's statement, Sora lunges at Marluxia only to have the Nobody swing his scythe and giving a cut on Sora's cheek.

Sora stumbles backward and wipes the blood of his face.

He growls at Marluxia.

"You definitely do not know when to give up, now do you? Very well, I shall make you see the truth… unless you want to see the truth yourself."

"Knock it off. Riku would never betray me." Sora steadies his grip on the keyblade.

"Stubborn child, must I have to repeat myself over and over again? Maybe I should force it into your head that Riku is not coming back with you!"

"STOP IT!" Sora shouts as he tries to bash Marluxia's head off with his keyblade.

However, as his keyblade makes contact on Marluxia, the Nobody disperses into a bunch of rose petals, indicating that Sora has been fighting a clone all along.

"Nice try, Sora. Not bad but too bad it wasn't enough. There is a card lying amidst the petals. I'll be waiting on the next floor," Marluxia's voice echoes throughout the room. "Make sure you get up here… alive, that is."

Like as the Nobody said, there is a card lying in the petals scattered all over the floor.

As Sora picks it up, the walls of the room suddenly start to move inward. And in no time soon, he will be nothing but a crushed pancake sticking the sides of the wall.

Sora hurries to the door. He grabs the knob but it does not turn.

"It's locked?" the boy says in surprise as he persists to try and turn the knob.

The walls are closing in pretty quickly.

Suddenly, the card in Sora's hand starts to glow. He looks at it but the light emanating from the card blinds him.

Sora gasps while the light envelops him and he disappears from the room before the walls finally meet each other with a thud.

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The sound of metal clashing against metal fills through the air.

Axel leaps a few feet away from Riku, dispersing his right chakram so he can clutch onto his left arm which has been wounded from the ensuing fight.

"You're good, you know that. No wonder Marluxia's trying to use you." Axel tries to stabilize himself. "But listen to me, after you do whatever he wants you to do, you're going to be cast away like some useless puppet."

"Keep your mouth shut! I know what I'm doing!" Riku yells at Axel.

"Sure you do… you're already halfway into their clutches. You're not their associate. You're their puppet." Axel tries to knock some sense into Riku's head. "They're just going to use you to get out of here. Which sentence don't you understand?"

"I don't understand what you're trying to say because I'm not trying to!" Riku charges at Axel with his Soul Eater.

Axel jumps out of the way albeit getting nearly hit once again as the pain from his wound feels very excruciating. He disperses his other chakram.

"Well, have it your way, Riku. It seems that your heart has gotten the best of you. It's really pitiful," Axel says sadly before turning away from Riku.

"I said shut up!" Riku charges towards Axel who is getting ready to warp out of the room.

The sound of blade slashing through flesh is heard before the red-haired Nobody disappears. Riku then detects a drop in Axel's scent. Soon enough, it is as if Axel has disappeared.

"That takes care of that. Now, I must get back to Marluxia and Zexion. I hope they will find what I have done very amusing and worthy of their trust. And maybe once they have captured Sora for me and got even, I may have to dispose of them. Nobodies aren't really supposed to coexist with us anyway." Riku grins as he disperses his weapon and walks away.

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"Welcome, Sora. To the Thirteenth Floor… we were getting quite worried about you. Especially after Larxene and Demyx went after you," Marluxia says with a false welcoming tone in his voice. "But then, I have to skip the niceness and proceed to buy some time for Riku."

"Where's Riku?" Sora asks, ignoring the fact that Marluxia has just summoned his scythe out and ready to battle.

"Ignorance must be a virtue to you. You never learn!" The Nobody smirks scornfully at the boy. "How many times do I have to repeat myself?"

"As many times as I have to see Riku again!" Sora's keyblade appears in his hands and he charges at Marluxia.

Marluxia easily evades the attack by warping a few feet behind Sora.

"To cast away your ability to make decisions for yourself just for a person who now loathes you… it's a pity that someone who has a heart can be so undeserving of it," Marluxia taunts Sora. "Maybe I can use your heart more fittingly if I had it."

Sora growls at the pink-haired Nobody and tightens his grip on the keyblade's hilt. But he realizes that if he defeats Marluxia now like what he has done to the other Nobodies, he wouldn't be able to get any information about Riku's current condition and whereabouts.

"Tell me, Marluxia. What do you intend to do with me now?" he asks.

"You finally bothered to ask me something. Well, you are nearly at the end of your journey in your mind, Sora. And what I have in store for you? They will shatter your heart to the core… unless, of course, you have no heart," Marluxia answers.

"What are you saying?"

"Hmm… you don't get it, do you? Someone of limited intellect could never comprehend what my plans are." Marluxia chuckles quite menacingly. "But it seems that maybe your journey has come to an end now if you still haven't quite honed your skills."

Marluxia then levitates a few feet from the ground. "Larxene and Demyx might have fallen and so might have Saix. But I will show you true power!"

"Saix? Who is Saix?"

Ignoring this, Marluxia swings his scythe, sending out a pink crescent wave of energy at Sora who dodges it by rolling to his left.

"Well, there's probably no use in talking to you either… just like the rest of the Organization." Sora then starts his battle with Marluxia.

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_Like I said, the chapters are getting shorter. Oh no, what have I done to Riku? And is Axel still alive? Don't kill me, guys! Hehe. So… noticed something yet in the dialogues this time? I hope that I didn't disappoint you guys with this seemingly-disappointing chapter. Please review. I will like it very much. Hehehe… the next two or three chapters will quite be a shocker. Hehe. Wait, were those the right numbers? Anyways, while I think of the remaining chapters, please review and I shall see on the next update. Okay? See ya!_


	24. A Surprising Comeback But Not Really

_I finally got this up. Hehe. Sorry for the long update, I had writer's block because of the crazy term paper I was working on. Darn paper. Anyways, I really wanted to finish this because it had been my best fic so far in my first year in this site. Hahaha. Anyways, okay so we're nearing the end of our heroes' journey in the twisted dimension where memory and nightmares meet... yada-yada-yada. I'm hoping I still don't disappoint you guys. Best wishes for a happy reading as always. And I forgot the castle was supposed to be only until eleven floors! Darn... but no worries, instead of correcting my mistake last chapter, I'll just make the castle indeed to thirteen floors. Okay? Hehe... so yeah, another mistake turns into plot device._

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**Narration: **After assuming Axel's defeat in his hands, Riku goes off back to the Thirteenth Floor to meet up with Zexion and Marluxia. And on the other hand, Marluxia squares off against Sora the second time. The story is definitely twisted up in this distorted world where dreams, nightmares and memories merge together.

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Sora lunges at Marluxia and tries to finish the Nobody off with a few more blows form the keyblade. However, Marluxia proves to be too fast for Sora to catch as he easily blocks the boy's attacks and warps away to the other end of the room.

And in the midst of the heated battle between Marluxia and Sora, a Corridor of Darkness opens up and another Nobody turns up. He then teleports to the pink-haired Nobody's side and gets ready to face off against Sora.

"Greetings, Sora. Riku will be coming here soon. And you will finally be able to see him again... that is if you can beat four of us," Zexion tells the boy, his voice full of ill intent. "Are you ready to face us?"

"Four?" Sora repeats in shock. "What do you mean four?"

"Yes. Apparently, you haven't noticed, have you? Larxene and Demyx?" Marluxia grins at Sora for being so ignorant as not to notice the fact that he still remembers both their names instead of forgetting them.

"So?" Sora still doesn't understand. "I've defeated them, right?"

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning drops from above and strikes the area beside Marluxia. After which, a blonde-haired woman appears, chuckling mockingly at Sora.

Next, a portal opens beside Zexion and out runs Demyx with his sitar.

"Did our guest miss the one and only entertainer in the castle? Because... here I am!" He then stops and looks at his accomplices. "Now we're all complete so we can all play!"

"Play?" Sora reiterates, unsure of what Demyx is trying to convey.

"Of course!" Marluxia snaps his fingers and a counter appears above Sora. "You remember this, don't you?"

Sora remains speechless as he looks up to see a two-digit number floating above his head.

"Remember your battle with my Absent Silhouette? This counter-" Marluxia points at the number above Sora's head. "-functions the same way... except this time every hit you take, regardless of who inflicted it upon you, diminishes the counter by one. And until it reaches zero, your fate is sealed and you'll never meet your Riku again."

Sora gasps.

"That's right, Sora. But it's pretty impressive that you got this far," Larxene falsely congratulates him. "I mean, defeating my and Demyx's Replica Data... that's pretty heartless of you. Especially when you had killed of your own friends just to get up to the higher floors of this twisted castle!" Her tone darkens as she speaks the last line.

"Friends?" Sora mumbles.

"Oh, don't tell me you've forgotten, Sora! Leon? Cloud? You didn't even show remorse when you finished them off!" Larxene chuckles and continues on, "Not heartless, huh? Remember those two guys who attacked you on the lower floors?"

"I... I don't..."

"Of course, he doesn't, Larxene. Those replicas probably contained the last of his memories of Cloud and Leon so his memories of them are gone," Zexion says before Larxene could further provoke Sora. She merely gives Zexion a quick angry glare before looking back at Sora.

"Now then, can we begin, please?" Demyx asks Marluxia, eager to start playing with his sitar.

"Okay. Very well, let us begin. Sora, you better survive our wave of attacks!" Marluxia declares as he hovers a few feet above the air with his scythe, poised to swing his scythe to unleash a giant crescent wave of pink energy.

Larxene has already made several duplicates of herself, all armed with his throwing knives.

Zexion summons his lexicons around him.

"Dance water dance!" Demyx plays on his sitar, summoning several water clones.

Sora prepares once again for another battle. However, this time is different. Instead of just having one enemy to face, he has to look out for four Nobodies all attacking at the same time and all four of them are no laughing matter when it comes to fighting.

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Riku arrives back in where he and the Nobodies usually meet. To his surprise, no one is there except for him. The white room is virtually devoid of anything except for four couches making a square at the dead centre of it and a bunch of shelves lining up the room.

"But wait... there wasn't... weren't any shelves in here before!" Riku says to himself. "Have I gotten lost in this place again? Think, Riku. Think. Did I make a wrong turn or was it the wrong floor? But... it's impossible. I couldn't have gotten lost. I followed the path I took to get down."

After five minutes of deep thinking, he hears a sound similar to the two metallic objects clashing with each other. For a while, he could not believe it. He shakes his head at first upon feeling a notion that someone is actually fighting on this floor.

"No, wait... it's not on this floor. The sound feels like it's on the upper floors. But... I thought that this was the topmost floor in the castle." Riku suddenly feels like something is being kept from him.

"No matter what they say to me, it is like they have something else in mind. Something other than allowing me to get my revenge on Sora." The boy clenches his fist. "But that will have to wait."

He then summons his Soul Eater and runs out of the room. He enters a hallway which surprisingly looks different from before. This time, it has portraits of who else than the four Nobodies whom he has been affiliating with.

The clash of metal rebounds off the spotless white walls of the castle as Riku finds a door leading to a ridiculously long and winding staircase that he presumes to lead up to the topmost floor. He looks down and sees that the staircase starts from the eleventh floor.

"That's weird... so how do I know where the fight actually is? And is it Axel? No... I already defeated him back at one of the previous floors." Riku decides to head upstairs wherever it will take him. "As long as it takes me to that traitor, I will do everything in power to get even."

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"It's amazing, Sora! That you've lasted this far," Larxene says with a giggle. "But... I'm sure you know that your time is up."

Sora pants for his breath. The counter hovering above his head shows an ominous-looking one-digit number.

"But we're very regretful that we have to take your life now. We hope that you don't bear a grudge on us. After all, we have been your gracious and ever-considerate hosts of the castle." Zexion makes a swift movement with his right hand and summons up an opened lexicon which starts to glow blue.

"See you later!" Demyx waves at Sora. "I sure hope you were enlightened by our last encore performance."

"Our last but still best performance! I actually enjoyed every minute of this ever since you entered the castle." Larxene flashes her most terrifyingly sadistic grin. "I hope our demonstration didn't hurt you... that much. Not that it wasn't supposed to be painful in the first place."

"You see, this was our little payback for cutting our showtime short in the real world!" Demyx exclaims as he holds his sitar on his left hand.

"Now as you draw your last breath, say your prayers that will never be fulfilled. Dorwn in both despair and anguish as we, Nobodies, will once again return to the world and exist once more to continue on with our plans." Marluxia smirks as he lifts his scythe.

"It's all over for you, Sora!" The woman squeals with glee.

But then, a series of footsteps are heard. The door to the room creaks open. The four Nobodies stop with what they are doing and turn around to see who has arrived while Sora's eyes widen in shock as he sees the person who has just entered.

"Nice to meet you again... Sora!"

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_Darn my incompetence! The update is short again. Waaah. But anyways, the cutscenes aren't that long too, right? Never mind. Don't answer that. Anyways, I enjoyed writing their lines! Yes! It's really fun to put myself in their shoes for once, you know. So yes, I'm kind of sad that the story is nearly over. And I hope I don't fail your expectations again. Hehe... I can't promise you guys the next update will come next week. It depends, okay? I think two or three more chapters and this story is finished. So... please review and let me know what you think of this so far. I need your reviews. Hahaha._

_And I have a new poll up. I'm not actually forcing you guys to take it. No! But if you want to, you can. Just at least check it out so you know what you'll be expecting after I'm done with this. Okay, that's enough because my Author's Notes are pretty long already. See ya next chapter! Hehe._


	25. In Chess, The Pawn Goes First

_Hey, guys. Sorry it took me a long time to update. First, there were my finals and my term paper. Second, my computer reformatted itself without telling me because it just wanted to. And I had been hoping to update somewhere since last week but couldn't due to a lot of schoolwork. So, I know the last chapter was kind of crappy and all but I hope that this chapter would be different and make up for that cheesy output from last time. Hehe. Are you ready for this? Okay then. Have a happy reading as always._

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**Narration: **Sora's counter has been reduced to a one and any hit from any of his opponents will certainly finish him off. He struggles to keep up with his fatigue but to no avail as their relentless barrage of attacks prove too much for him. As he takes a deep breath and finally comes to terms on how the battle will end, the door to the room opens revealing a hooded figure. Who could this be? Was Axel really eliminated? Or is it now time that Riku and Sora finally meet face to face? And if so, can Sora stop Riku from believing the lies that the Nobodies have been feeding him or will they both be doomed to stay in the Realm of Dreams forever?

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Sora gapes in awe as the hooded figure enters the room. The four Nobodies disperse their weapons and turn to face him.

"Didn't I tell you guys that Sora is mine alone to kill?" The figure puts his hood down, revealing locks of silver hair and an angry expression on his face. Marluxia responds by dispelling the "doom counter" above Sora's head with a simple wave of his hand and slightly bows to Riku although he does it hesitantly.

"Oh, we're sorry, Riku. But look at the bright side, we already wore him out for you," Larxene says halfheartedly as she points at the exhausted Sora. "Now, you can just slash his throat with that sword-like thingy of yours."

Riku glowers at Larxene who halfheartedly replies with a "Sorry" after Zexion nudges her. The silver-haired boy passes by the Nobodies and goes over in front of Sora who is still on his knees because of exhaustion. He touches the brunette's face and brushes off some blood off Sora's cheek.

"You never change, do you Sora?" He looks at the brown-haired boy with a cold unflinching stare. "You always wanted to be the hero when you're actually nowhere near to being one."

"What are you talking about, Riku?" Sora is confused by his friend's statement. "How can you say such a thing? We're friends, right?"

Riku just looks at Sora with the same icy glare. "Remember when I said 'Because I wasn't a total sap like you'? I guess I meant it… after all this time, you would just let those moments be something of no importance to you? Am I just a practice dummy? Do I look like a practice dummy for dating to you?"

"What are you talking about, Riku? I never…" Sora is cut off from his sentence as a Cure card is thrown at him by Larxene. Doubtful at first if this is a trick, he gives Larxene a questioning look. The Nobody simply ignores this and continues to stand beside Marluxia to watch both keyblade-wielders.

Along with Marluxia and Larxene, Demyx and Zexion also observe the brewing argument between Riku and Sora, occasionally smirking at how perfectly their plans are proceeding.

"Listen to me, Riku! I got here as fast as I can to save you."

"Save me? Don't you mean save yourself? Besides, the only possible reason why you want to get out of here so quickly is to leave me here so you can go and see Kairi in the real world. You never loved me and it was only her who really mattered in your life."

"That's not true, Riku," Sora protests.

Riku takes out a locket and shows it to Sora. "How does this show that you don't care about me? If you really did love me, you wouldn't leave such a thing behind even if you were fighting for your life… you wouldn't let go of this." He drops the locket on to the floor, causing it to open upon hitting the ground. "Am I just a toy for you, Sora? All those words… were they just words? Nothing more?"

"Riku… listen to me. It's not what you think. Let me explain."

"Why should I, Sora? Why should I listen to you ever again?" He looks down to see the picture in the locket. "Am I not enough?"

Tears start to gather in Sora's eyes. "Riku… please. Please listen to me."

"Pull it together, Sora. You know he's not coming back to your side. I mean, puh-leez… after all you've done to him, you're even more heartless than before." Larxene grins ominously at Sora. "And you didn't even care to look for him in the castle. If you did, you would have found him like an eternity ago."

"And to think that it is us who don't have hearts," Demyx says, adding along to Larxene's insults. "You're pretty cruel too… maybe even more cruel than us."

"Stop it!" Sora screams defensively.

"Aww… does it hurt because it's true?" Larxene says teasingly. She then turns to Riku and says, "See? If he isn't guilty of abandoning you for Kairi, he wouldn't be reacting like this."

Marluxia seconds Larxene's statement. "It's true, Riku. All those words he told you before were meaningless; the gifts, insignificant… they were no more than garbage for you to keep as he didn't want to store them in his place. And in due time, you became one of those garbage as well."

"Riku, the time has come to pass the judgment. Whether you are with us and against Sora or you side with a two-timing treacherous traitor is up to you," Zexion tells Riku. "However… I assume that there's only one answer to this simple question, am I right?"

All four Nobodies grin as Riku nods and his Soul Eater appears on his right hand.

"Sora! Are you up for another challenge?" the silver-haired lad asks the brunette as the former steps into his battle stance.

"Another challenge?" Sora repeats, puzzled.

"Yes… however, this time the loser stays here and never comes back to the real world. So are you up for it?"

"But Riku…" Sora hesitates to fight his friend.

"You have no choice, Sora. Either you fight with me or you die without a struggle."

Sora reluctantly holds his keyblade up and prepares for a fight with Riku. However, the fight does not proceed as Riku puts down Soul Eater, apparently angered.

"Cure yourself, Sora!" Riku demands as Sora is still in his weakened state.

Sora does not respond.

"I said cure yourself! Otherwise, there is no honor in beating you. And I'm not that kind of person who likes to fight with someone who's already down… because I'm not heartless like you."

The brunette continues to gawk at Riku.

"Allow me… lightning!" Larxene interrupts them, firing a lightning bolt at Sora. Like everyone else except Larxene, Riku momentarily taken aback by the blonde woman's sudden attack on Sora. And for a split second, as if acting on instinct alone, he turns around and attempts to hit Larxene with his weapon.

Fortunately for Larxene, she sees it coming and easily avoids all of Riku's swings. "What do you think you're doing? You're siding with him now?" she asks him, quite surprised at his sudden change of actions.

"Sorry… I was a little bit out of my mind for that moment," Riku quickly apologizes and focuses his attention back on Sora who has evaded the lightning as well as used up the Cure card judging by the looks on his face.

"Hmm… it seems that you still retain that little concern for your dear enemy over there," Zexion tells Riku in a warning tone. "I hope you know what you're doing Riku… or else we'll also be forced to eliminate you along with him." The Nobody points at Sora.

"I know what I'm doing," Riku replies in a conceited manner, apparently disregarding what Zexion was trying to convey as his hatred and anger for Sora begins to brew and consume his heart. He then faces Sora with a smug smile on his face. "Are you ready, Sora?"

"But…I don't want to fight you, Riku…" Sora hesitates.

"Fight him, Riku. And if you win, you'll finally feel how it is like not to be bounded by any false commitments or chains of lies by someone as deceitful and fallacious as Sora," Marluxia further provokes Riku into attacking the other keyblade master.

"Hope you put on a great show for us," Demyx adds. "Oh, and don't forget that we're going to be rooting for you!" He chuckles.

"Let the games begin! What are you two waiting for?" Larxene says as she eager to see some melee action. "Oh, and this time, try to hurt each other as much as possible. May the more unfeeling and brutal one win. Oh, wait. Correct that. May the more unfeeling and brutal one stay alive."

"Now, Sora, come at me!" Riku challenges the other boy. "There is no backing down from this fight."

Sora reluctantly faces Riku but then soon agrees to go engage him in combat. "I don't want to hurt you, Riku. But it seems I have no choice."

At once, Larxene reacts by saying, "See, Riku? If Sora really loved you and cared for you, he wouldn't attack you even if it meant his life."

"It's not true!" Sora cries out in defense. He then turns to Riku and says, "Riku, can't you see they're just using you?"

"The truth of the matter, Sora, is that it is you who is trying to take advantage over me," Riku answers angrily. "I have had enough of your empty promises. Nothing you can say to me now will make a difference! You are another one of those selfish, conceited, high-and-mighty and shallow liars."

"Riku, don't!" Sora blocks Riku's attack with his keyblade.

And from a safe distance, all the four remaining Nobodies watch the fight.

"How amusing… now we are only one small step away from the completion of both our revenge on Sora and our comeback to the real world." Marluxia grins evilly.

"But, Marluxia, there's still a lingering scent in the air. And what's very peculiar is that I cannot detect who it is," Zexion informs the pink-haired Nobody. "What's even more puzzling is that it's not Riku's scent."

"Hmm… he cannot win even if he fights against us with Sora and Riku, Zexion. You need not worry. We are much more powerful now as Sora's grip on his memory weakens while our control over them is further amplified to an even greater degree than that of Sora's. Now, all we need to do now is watch and then eliminate the victor."

The Nobodies then smirk as the clash between Sora and Riku rages on.

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_So… is this much better? I hope so. Hehe… well, anyways, I finally posted this up so don't strangle me with a jump rope or whatever. Oh and by the way, since 358/2 Days has been released, I now have three characters acting OOC. Please forgive me. I didn't know. Demyx, Axel and Saix are all… OOC'd. So just pardon me. ? I can't tell you because Square Enix might sue me. Hehehe… but I hope you're enjoying every bit of my story. Please review and thanks. Hopefully, the next update will be somewhere next week._


	26. The Next Hit Will Very Much End You!

_Hey, I'm back. I got a mega delay since I had to go back and visit my province during semestral break. Unfortunately, it seems that the computer at my house was running really slow and I couldn't type my story like at all without my brother or mother peeping behind my back. (I can't work with someone looking at me. Hehe.) So yeah here it is. Hehe. By the way, I just noticed the first few chapters seem like something out of a Square Enix script (with all the yaoi content) while the later chapters are like that of Disney's (yaoi content implied). Weird... anyways, enjoy!_

* * *

**Narration: **As Sora further ascends into the castle, he has encountered Marluxia on the thirteenth floor and starts to fight him. However, it is revealed that both Demyx and Larxene are still alive. Sora is then attacked by all four surviving Nobodies, Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx and Zexion, in an effort to stall until Riku arrives. The plan works and Riku finally meets face to face with Sora wwoo he deems to be completely disloyal to him. At Marluxia's urging, Riku gets into a one-on-one brawl with Sora. And the outcome nears...

* * *

"What's the matter, Sora? Are you holding back on me because you still think I'm weak?" Riku's strikes become increasingly stronger as each hit is blocked by Sora's keyblade. "I told you to give me all you've got! Is this what the other keyblade master is merely capable of?"

"Riku, please, stop!" Sora pleads as he blocks another hit from Riku's Soul Eater. "They're just using you! Please stop! I don't want to hurt you!"

"Hurt me? Since when have you not hurt me, Sora? You swore to protect after all these time we spent together! Do they mean nothing to you? Do I mean nothing to you?"

"Riku, stop! Please!" The brunette realizes that nothing can stop Riku's wrath now. But maybe something can. Only if he could just...

Riku continues to pummel Sora with a series of barrage from Soul Eater, giving the brunette no quarter to retaliate with an attack. And Sora slowly continues to back away as he parries each and every one of Riku's relentless assault with what seems to be a pained look on his face.

However, the way the battle is progressing so far fails to entertain the four Nobodies as they have all noticed that since the beginning of the fight Sora has been on the defensive, not even bothering to hurt a single hair on Riku at times when the gray-haired teen lets down his guard due to his strike missing its mark.

"Sora seems hesitant to attack Riku, Marluxia. Should we perhaps intervene in this pointless fight? He just seems to be stalling the inevitable," Zexion tells Marluxia. "The rage in Riku's heart will completely consume him.... However, there is still that unspeakable glimmer of that 'love' still in love. He's outliving his usefulness to us. We need to eliminate him while he still has no clue of our real intentions. It would be difficult if..."

Marluxia smirks. "It will all be over soon, Zexion. You don't need to worry. The longer Sora keeps up the fight, the more energy Riku needs to expend to break through Sora's guard. And when the moment comes when he finally deals the finishing blow to that Sora, he'll be exhausted and won't even last a second before we strike him down... just as he struck Vexen down. Ironic, isn't it?"

"Sounds like a good thing to do." Zexion goes back watching Sora's and Riku's keyblades clashing against each other. And neither one of them seems to be in a more advantageous position.

Riku has had it. He has been thwacking Sora with his keyblade this way and that but all the brunette can do is just block them and wait for more of Riku's strikes, not even caring to swing the keyblade at him, and plead for him to stop. "Are you mocking me or something, Sora?" At once, Riku's temper flares up and with renewed strength he continues to strike at Sora repeatedly. Eventually, one of his strikes breaks through Sora's defense and with a blow from his other hand Riku sends Sora crashing into one of the walls.

As Sora struggles to get up, a red Valentine's card falls out from his pocket. Upon laying his eyes on it, Riku freezes for a moment before approaching it instead of resuming battle with Sora. Several inches away from him lays the card which Sora had given to him last Valentine's Day with a bouquet. Those several inches then turn into steps before Riku finally picks it up and reads it.

After he finishes reading it, he looks at Sora who asks him, "Do you... still think I cheated on you, used you or hurt you in any other way?" He then goes toward Riku who makes no move to attack Sora. He places his hand on Riku's shoulder and says, "Because if I did, maybe... just maybe I am just not the Sora that I used to be. I... I'm sorry, Riku. If there's any way I could make it up to you after all this has happened..." He turns to face the Nobodies. "I'll gladly risk my life only so you can return back to Destiny Islands."

"What?" Zexion exclaims. "This... this can't be... Riku... don't you dare turn your back on us."

Sora looks at Riku before saying, "They're only going to use you. I hope that after reading the card you've realized that they've been controlling you all this time to get their needs. Which is to get back to the real world after they kill us both. That was their whole plan since the beginning."

Whereas Sora has been completely informed of this by Roxas before the Nobody is subsequently killed because of his betrayal, Riku is dumbfounded at the mention of this "plan". He has now pieced everything together. From the mental torture to the sudden niceness to the supposedly "real" Valentine's card handed over to him to the order of eliminating Vexen and eventually Axel... it has all been a trick. A trick to get him to do all their dirty work.

Witnessing this, the four Nobodies' smug smiles are erased. Their "perfect" plan has just been ruined. Instead of eliminating Sora with Riku, they now have to use their own bare hands to destroy them both.

"Okay. So you four wanted to get Sora out of the way by using me. After which, you dispose of me and exit this realm through our hearts. But what I want to know is that where are the other Organization XIII members?" Riku asks the four. "And what have you done to them? Are they somewhere still in the castle waiting for the right time to strike us down at your command? And what about Axel? Why did you order me to finish him off? Same goes for Vexen and Xemnas, why?"

Zexion looks at Riku with disgust. "Do you have any idea how rude and impolite you sounded just now? It's not even minutes that you've switched sides and you already lost your manners. One question at a time, Riku. To answer your first question, they're gone. We're the only ones remaining left. Sora had already eliminated them while ascending the castle... to 'find' you, I suppose."

Marluxia then cuts in. "Axel is, if you had indeed carried the task out properly and with utmost diligence and care, now nothing more than a distant fragment of memory. Same goes for Vexen whom you've taken care in order to prove your worth to us. Xemnas, on the other hand, was foolhardy enough to think that he could thwart our plans. Apparently, all those years of being a superior over us in the real world has made him think that we, the other members, are more inferior than he is. And the price for his overconfidence was handed by no one else by you, sharing the same fate with Axel and Vexen. Oh wait, let me rephrase that, their very existence is denied. Now, no one can remember them but us."

"What do you mean 'us'?" Riku raises his eyebrows. "Sora, did you really fight your way to get... to me?"

"I did." Sora flashes Riku a smile. "But I don't seem to remember who I had to defeat to get to the next floor."

The gray-haired boy turns to the Nobodies for an answer.

"Your friend, Sora, obviously wouldn't remember as this is his mind that we are in right now. The very Realm of Dreams that we are in is in Sora's mind. And everything you see right now is his memories... rather, was his memories. Over time, while you and your silly boyfriend were happily living at your homes, sipping juice and eating paupu fruits, he has been dreaming about his battles with us," Marluxia narrates. "Strangely, he couldn't remember who we were. And the more he tried to recall us, the more he brought us back to life. It wasn't long until we 'lived' again in his mind."

"Eventually, his grasp on his memory started to weaken and we knew that there will come a time when we could force Sora back to his subconscious and defeat him from there. But in order to do that, we needed a little bit of assistance and resources. So, we gradually claimed his memories of Castle Oblivion and The Castle That Never Was, combined them to make a new stronghold and then revived the remaining members of Organization member to aid in our cause," Zexion tells Riku and Sora, the latter of which still does not seem to understand.

Marluxia continues from where Zexion left off. "Sora didn't actually notice this since most of the memories that we took control of were the ones stashed deep in the unreachable corners of his mind. And so, after some time, we began our attack on him by delivering nightmares in his sleep."

"Which is why he had to sleep in my house because he was so terrified of them," Riku says, slowly coming to understand how this entire thing began.

"Right you are, Riku. However, we didn't see that the plan to drag Sora back into his mind would actually affect you as well. Still, we proceed as planned. And in this realm, anything that is slain in here is forgotten," Zexion explains.

"But why do I remember?"

"You remember because it isn't your memories that we are tampering with. It is Sora's. And only he is affected by what happens here. For example, the very instant Vexen was eliminated by you, Sora forgot him as well. It doesn't matter who slays who but who gets slain. The memory loss is instantaneous. And it's not only limited to memories of people. Memories of places and events count too. And if any of them are tampered... like the Valentine's card, it will be lost as well once you leave." Marluxia smirks. "Unfortunately for you two, regardless of who wins, the memories lost here are lost forever. And when you, Riku, leave too, you will forget. Forget everything... as Sora would. The effect is irreversible. Nothing you can do will restore his memory back. Nothing! He will be but another amnesiac boy.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"My, my. Why so doubtful of us, Riku? You seem to be forgetting that you spent more time with us here than that jerk beside you over there." Larxene pouts.

"You shut up! That may be true but I spent my time with Sora all these years in the real world at Destiny Islands. And there's nothing now that you can say to make me go against him again!" Riku cries out defiantly.

Then, Riku starts recalling every single thing that Axel told him in their confrontation. He looks at the ground and tells Sora, "I see... that's what their plan is... I believe you, Sora... because... I love you. You were telling the truth all this time." He then takes his place beside Sora. "I'm sorry that things had to get to this. I was... blinded by that false anger and hatred... and those false assumptions they caused me to believe in. But now, I'm by your side and I've got your back. So don't worry.... we'll get out of this." A smile is etched on Riku's face as the love and trust between him and Sora is now back and stronger than ever.

"Doesn't it just irk you off when your plan falls apart the moment you are actually going to win?" Larxene eyes the two boys. Her hatred, very evident by both the tone of her voice and the way she looks at them. "But I just hate it when kids like you feign bravery!" Larxene angrily screams. "There is no guarantee that you two can get past us. Playtime's over and you two are going to stay here forever!" She then summons her knives while her fellow Nobodies do the same.

Marluxia, now angered at this unexpected turnabout, tells both Sora and Riku, "Even with your combined strength, you cannot defeat us. Your hearts are easily manipulated. No, you two aren't Keyblade Masters at all... just a couple of kids who happen to be wielding them quite irresponsibly as if the entire fate of the worlds never rested on your hands. Such power wasted..."

"If only you both had complied with our wishes, we would not have to resort to this. Unfortunately, the circumstances now are forcing us to. Bearing even more bad news, your demise will be imminent since no help will be enough for you two to get back," Zexion says as he opens his lexicon and prepares to bombard the two teenagers with spells.

"What are we waiting for then? It's time to dance!" Demyx then strums on his sitar, summoning forth pillars of water that burst from the ground below Sora and Riku. The battle has begun.

* * *

Minutes later, Sora and Riku are trying to catch their breath as they defend themselves from the combined attacks of the now-enraged Nobodies. Each hit parried only allows the Nobodies to get another opening from which to attack the duo. And as seconds pass, Riku and Sora's energy is diminishing even faster since they have each expended a fairly large amount in their pitted brawl against each other.

"I... I... can't take any more, Sora... can you?" Riku says, half-panting, as he positions his back up against Sora's.

Sora looks at his friend and forces a grin on his face. "Don't worry, Riku. One way or another, we'll get through this." But of course, he knows that if this keeps up he and Riku are as good as dead.

And after a few more dodging of numerous petal beams, water balls, meteors and lightning bolts, the brunette finally falls on his knees, extremely exhausted from the fight. It seems that it is he who has been exerting more effort in the fight with Riku.

Then, Larxene and Demyx reappear beside Sora, each charging up their own attack, ready to fire it at the brunette. Coming to Sora's aid, Riku immediately makes a mad dash towards Sora all the while getting attacked by flying lexicons and dodging huge whirlwinds of petals. Just before he pushes Sora out of harm's way, he manages to give the latter a quick kiss on the lips and an "I love you" as the two blonde Nobodies unleash the full fury of their attack at Riku. As the bolt of lightning and the forceful stream of water collide on the boy, a devastating cry of pain is heard before a deafening series of crackling and fizzing sound is heard.

"RIKU! NO!" Sora shouts.

But that does not end there. To make sure that the double-crossing teen is finished, Marluxia and Zexion follow up with a whirlwind of petals and a rain of meteors at the spot where Riku is last seen standing. While the meteoric onslaught and the poisonous gust of petals brew, Sora watches helpless at his lover get the major brunt of the combination attack from all of their enemies.

"RIKU! RIKU!" The brunette screams again, desperately calling out to the gray-haired teen. But the smoke caused by Zexion's meteor attack has apparently engulfed the entire room, obscuring Sora's vision.

He hears Larxene's voice saying, "I think you two overdid it this time but I'm sure this boy is as good as finished to be sure. Time for the little baby to die next. I hope he's not up for some hide and seek."

Then, Demyx is heard saying, "This is not what I had mind when I said dancing! This smokescreen effect was too much. Dazzling sparks of light and a jet of water were already enough!"

Before he can act on anything, Sora has to wait until the smoke subsides. And until then, he keeps his fingers crossed for Riku's life... as well as his own since the Nobodies are most probably going to resume their offensive the moment the dust clears up. He has to think fast.

"Is there no other way to escape this? And what about Riku?" Sora contemplates while simultaneously thinking of how he could possibly defeat the four Nobodies by himself as he barely even puts up a fight against them just moments ago.

* * *

_Wow... that was quite long since I had to at least explain nearly everything to the protagonists. I mean, no story seems to skip that. Every villain has to reveal the entire plot to the hero, right? So yeah. And about Demyx... he's still OOC'd! But now, I'm just going to use him as a comic relief. But he's still going to be a fairly average fighter at the least. And the overkill, please don't hate me for that! I had already planned it from the start. I tried making Marluxia's lines very dramatic. Same goes for Zexion's which are supposed to sound both intellectual and polite at the same time. This is the near end of my story. I hope I don't shock you guys with how I'm going to end it. Please leave a review for me and tell me how it is so far. I hope I don't leave a plot hole. Haha._

_P.S. It just occurred to me. If Kingdom Hearts really made these four Nobodies battle you all at once, it would definitely be impossible to win. Or at least, the prospect of winning would be really dim. Hehe. _


	27. The End? Maybe

_Hah, I bet you thought I wasn't going to update this anymore, huh? Well, here it is. I forgot to finish it before January and kept forgetting to upload it two days ago. Anyways, it's here._

_So, here's the last chapter for this fic. I hope it doesn't disappoint. And feel free to PM me if I have left plot holes or anything. To those who have played Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, please read the date of publication of this fic before you criticize the story. This story has already been started way before Days went out so please don't flame or anything, okay? Now on to the story and I hope you enjoy._

* * *

The dust begins to settle and Sora braces himself for the inevitable onslaught of attacks he is going to take from the four Nobodies. Larxene is now giggling incessantly; the thought of finally vanquishing the one who killed her apparently tickles her to no end. And as for Marluxia, he smirks at Sora's current situation.

The only thing standing between him and their return to reality is a lone keyblader. His companion has already fallen prey to their combined efforts of attacking. And how delightful it is to finally exact revenge on the one who had ended their unfulfilled existence as Nobodies.

"I am going to enjoy every bit of this." Marluxia eyes the brunette, eager to see that youthful face in pain. "Just as much as you enjoyed my fall in Castle Oblivion."

Larxene cuts in, "Vengeance must be as delicious as this. I can almost feel the joy of tearing you apart with my own two hands!"

"And I'll finally get a chance to get out of this awfully boring place." Demyx grins. "And you said I was a lousy fighter. Look who's losing now, Sora!"

Sora glances at Riku's motionless body. Not even the boy's chest is rising. The brunette looks back at the Nobodies as he walks over to Riku. Kneeling beside the boy's body, he cradles it in his arms, whispering something in the silver-haired boy's ears. And as teardrops fall from Sora's eyes onto his friend's shirt, Larxene approaches him, disgusted of Sora's reactions.

Mockingly quoting Riku's words, she nastily tells him, "Ugh! 'Put yourself together, Sora!' Geez, a little kid like you can't bear the death of a useless person? You are just a baby. And even you made it up all the way here, you are no different from the little brat you used to be when we first met. What was that one year vacation you took from saving the world in Destiny Islands? A trip back to Babyland?"

"No matter how many Heartless you have fallen, no matter how many of our plans that you thwart, no matter how many years have passed, the truth is... that your heart is weak. Overridden by emotions and easily engulfed by despair, you're nothing. Nothing more than a puppet. A slave to someone's wills which are stronger than you." Zexion pauses for a bit, clears his throat before resuming. "You are, were and always will be a puppet. And your puppet duties began with your stay in Castle Oblivion. No? Of course not, they began with that very incident that gave you control of the keyblade. That was when you finally relinquished your actual freedom."

Sora's eyes widen at this. "You mean, that... that I was just..."

"Yes, Sora. All this time, you have been acting according to plan. The defeat of Xehanort's Heartless at the End of the World, Riku's going over to the dark side due to his jealousy of you, your victory in Castle Oblivion, your subsequent awakening after that, everything you do was already written," Marluxia tells him, smiling. "And the only thing you ever did was follow it."

"You're lying!" Sora shouts, still holding the unmoving Riku in his arms. "It's not like that!"

"Oh? Really Sora? Is it? Tell me, did you really know how to defeat an entire group of experienced Nobodies by yourself? Or perhaps, you just had the most insane luck that you actually slew us? Answer me, Sora!" Larxene's eyes are filled with anger as she glares at Sora; the hostile stare, seeming like daggers, ready to pierce and stab the brunette repeatedly.

A dumbfounded Sora continues to gawk at the Nobodies. He couldn't find an answer.

"Well? No answer?" the female scowls at the brunette. "Well, it's obvious, isn't it? You've actually got no skill whatsoever with the keyblade. You didn't even have to get tutorials, am I right? And you just randomly learn magic and fancy combos with the keyblade... without even being taught. See? You're just another soulless puppet!"

Marluxia then adds, "And now despite the defeat of Organization XIII in the real world, here we are again. The same old story with another special someone to you being kidnapped and you have to get past obstacles to reclaim him. However this time, you did claim him but only to lose him again. This time... permanently."

"In case your little nutshell of a brain still doesn't get it, we set you up. The revived members of the Organization? They were there to test your strength and resolve to reach Riku. And once you got here, we already had planned what would happen next: either you would be defeated by Riku's hands or otherwise," Demyx says to Sora, smiling and making little gestures with his hands.

"However, we did not expect one our own more 'trusted' member to betray us. And so, we had to resort to eliminating him in order to prevent further damage to our plans. Also, we had to resort to taking out the little brat." Zexion does not seem any less distraught than his companions. "And most unfortunately, we had to resort into dirtying our hands as well."

With a puzzled look on his face, Sora asks, "Who... who is this 'trusted' member anyway? Well, I guess it looks like your 'new' organization isn't so organized at all."

Larxene snorts. "Who said we were intending for the others to get out of this place with us? We had everything planned, remember? We knew that you would be able to somehow defeat an array of both memory monsters and Nobodies regardless of your conditions just because your pathetic resolve to reach Riku. And now that he's gone, you're finally done!" She dashes over to Sora and kicks him in the stomach, knocking him backwards.

"But who's this 'traitor'?" the keyblade-wielder asks again.

"If you must know, it's your Nobody, Roxas. That stupid little-" Before Larxene could finish her sentence, a flaming chakram flies towards her. She sidesteps easily and sees that the door to the room is now wide open. And another hooded member stands between the doors. The flaming chakram hits the ground and dissipates.

"Huh?" Sora blurts out in surprise as he picks himself back up from the floor and tries to carry Riku, placing the silver-haired lad's arm on his back.

The other four Nobodies do not seem to be particularly affected by the intruder's presence. The intruder then runs over to Sora's side with the eyes of the four Nobodies eyeing him carefully, wary of his intentions.

"Nice of you to drop by for the last encore! We've been waiting for you!" Demyx says to the still-cloaked man. "Ready for the performance?"

"What have you done with Roxas?" the figure replies. "What have you done to Roxas?"

"Roxas?" Sora tries to remember. The name sounds familiar but he cannot visualize who this Roxas is. He is sure that he has heard the name before and maybe even met the real one before. But now, there's nothing in his memory that could tell him of any Roxas he ever knew of.

Marluxia is the one who answers the question this time. "Isn't it obvious what we do to traitors, Axel? Roxas, Vexen, Xemnas? They're all eliminated now. Their existence was nothing more than a dream. A dream that never was and never will be. So... would you like to join your best friend?" The pink-haired man flourishes his scythe in the air, creating a wind that knocks Axel's hood backwards revealing his face.

"You-you killed Roxas?" Axel repeats in disbelief. "How could you guys do that? How could you strike down fellow members of the-"

Zexion interrupts Axel, saying, "Didn't you do the same? Besides, isn't it that to accomplish our goals certain unspeakable deeds must be done?"

Upon hearing this, Axel immediately knows where this is headed to. He glances at Sora and sees that it's already too late for Riku since the latter has already been defeated. But then, the redhead remembers Roxas's parting gift to him.

"The card..." he whispers inaudibly. He reaches into his pocket and feels for it. "But... would it work? I suppose it should. We're still in the Realm of Dreams after all and Sora still hasn't been taken down yet."

"What's the matter, Axel? I thought you were up for a fight? Don't tell me you're going to chicken out now?" Larxene says tauntingly to Axel.

The crimson-haired man grits his teeth. "I have to make my move now before they do," he says to himself. He turns to Sora and, with a swift movement of his right hand, he throws the brunette a card.

"What? A card? We didn't devise that, did we?" Demyx alerts his allies upon seeing an unfamiliar card in Sora's hands. "It looks a lot different from the-"

"NO! So that's why we couldn't locate him at all or tamper with his powers! And I bet it's that blonde brat's fault he got hold of that!" Larxene snarls angrily. "A counter card! I knew that Roxas couldn't be trusted."

Surprised, Sora merely looks at the card. "What is this?"

"Don't ask. Get yourself and Riku away from here. Now! There's not much time," Axel tells the brunette. "These four are going to finish you within seconds! Trust me on this."

"Well, how do I know you're not with them?"

"Listen, Sora. We don't have much time..." A blast of lightning then strikes the area between Axel and Sora with such force that it blows both males off their feet.

Larxene grins maliciously as she dashes towards Sora and grabs him by the hair. "Not so fast! You're not going anywhere, little twerp!"

"Hmm... now what should we do with you?" Marluxia says casually, turning to face Axel who has just picked himself up from the floor. "Perhaps, you want... your own best friend to persuade you to our side? Or would you rather continue your traitorous ways until you meet your bitter end?" As he speaks this, a portal appears right between him and the redhead. But unlike the pitch-black color of the Corridors of Darkness the Nobodies use to transport themselves, this one has an odd gray color as well as rose petals emanating from it.

It takes about five seconds before a yellow-haired figure materializes in front of Axel. Upon laying his eyes on it, he gasps in shock. "Ro… ro…"

"That's right. It's Roxas!" Marluxia places his hand on the blonde's head and a crown of thorns appears to encircle the boy's head. He then looks at Roxas's face. "Now, would you mind taking care of a little problem we have?" He points at Axel.

"No, no, wait. Roxas!" Axel screams, his voice trembling, as he slowly retreats backwards. "Roxas! Listen to me! It's Axel! Roxas! Don't do this!"

"Hmm… apparently we recreate and alter Sora's memories if ever they are destroyed." Zexion then readies his lexicon as Sora begins to make a run for it while carrying Riku in his arms. But before Zexion could cause meteors to rain on them again, Larxene tells him, "Shouldn't we at least have a little chess game while at it?" She has an evil sadistic grin on her face which, at the moment, even made her more terrifying to look at.

"Chess? But I thought you hated those little boring board games?" Demyx immediately blurts out after hearing Larxene's suggestion.

The blonde female ignores Demyx's comment and this time she is able to access the same gray-colored corridors that Marluxia used just moments ago to summon Roxas. And this time, three figures emerge. A blue-haired man with a scar on his face, a platinum-blonde male and a muscular man with short brown wavy hair; all holding their respective weapons.

"Now then, Sora… choose the correct answer: you're going to be torn apart into shreds or you're going to be mauled mercilessly and then ripped to shreds?" Larxene laughs wryly while the three Nobodies she just summoned approached Sora.

"I did say that I'd be back, Sora." Saix grins ominously at the brunette before lunging at the latter with his claymore. "Back off. The meddlesome child is mine," he says to his recently-ressurected companions to which Luxord nods to and Lexaeus merely grunts in agreement.

The teenager instinctively puts left arm before him although quite certain that Saix could definitely just rip it off in order to get to him. He closes his eyes, waiting for that very second where he'd meet his end like Riku did when the silver-haired boy threw himself between Sora and a fatal combination of attacks. He could hear Saix's footsteps coming right at him.

But then, after about a couple of seconds, he is quite surprised that he's still alive and standing. He opens his eyes and blinks a bit before realizing that Axel has just blocked Saix's claymore with his chakrams.

"Sora! Just go! Hold on to the card. It'll do everything for you," Axel tells Sora as his chakrams holds Saix's claymore in such a way that the blue-haired Nobody could not pull away his weapon to strike Sora.

"What about you, Axel?" the brunette asks in concern for the redhead. But Axel merely grins and flashes him a reassuring smile before saying, "Now go if you want to live! Go!"

* * *

"Hey, what's the big idea? He's getting away!" Demyx points at Sora who is running as fast as he can with Riku in tow towards the door.

At once, Marluxia, Zexion and Larxene affix their eyes on the escaping keyblade-wielder. But before they could take further action, Axel appears again in front of them, blocking their way from Sora and Riku.

Larxene snaps her fingers and turns around to look for someone to command but it seems that Saix, Lexaeus and Luxord have vanished. "Within seconds? No, it's not possible. It's either that or…"

"What? You mean to say fun time is over?" Demyx puts on a pouty face. "But I want to make…"

Marluxia cuts Demyx off in mid-sentence and directs their attention to Sora. "We have to get him. It seems that we have been wasting our time long enough toying with him. Why don't we just get rid of him and this traitor once in for all?" He slams his scythe on the ground and the whole scenery around the four Nobodies, Axel, Sora and an unconscious Riku shatter like broken glass.

"What? What's happening?" Sora asks, bewildered as the supposed doorway before him breaks into several splinters. And everything around him is black except the four Nobodies and the floor which has inexplicably disappeared as well. All of them are on an invisible ground without any source of light yet they can see each other.

"No use running now, Sora," Zexion says with a sinister tone in his voice before four Twilight Thorn-sized ghostly figures appear. Each of them has an uncanny resemblance to both Zexion and his cohorts. The phantoms, their faces pale and their bodies in dull grey translucent shades, hover above the area, holding a larger version of their respective Nobody's weapons. "It's time to end this."

"But... but… I don't remember you guys having these forms at all." Sora takes a few more steps backwards as he watches the specters float maliciously towards him and his unconscious partner.

But then, Axel pushes the boy away and puts himself between the attackers and the two keybladers. After which, his chakrams envelop themselves with fire and start spinning around the red-headed Nobody. He smiles at Sora for one last time before his body starts to emit a red glow.

"Axel! Don't do it! You'll kill yourself again!" Sora struggles to get up while still holding onto Riku's body. "Axel! Stop it!"

The crimson-haired man chooses not to hear the brunette's screams and his chakrams begin to spin around him faster and faster. On the other hand, Demyx, Marluxia, Larxene and Zexion, although not moving, command their wraiths to attack Axel with each of the pallid mirror images firing a beam of dark energy. However, Axel has already built enough momentum and unleashed every last bit of his energy to cause several pillars of fire to erupt from the ground, targeting the ground under his attackers' feet in flames first.

"Wait, what? No! This can't be!" Larxene lets out an anguished cry as she is the first to disappear in the flames. "No! This is not happening! It's not supposed to!"

"It's not over yet…" Zexion manages to say before being enveloped in Axel's attack.

"Cursed traitor. We'll get our revenge someday." And the mastermind of the group vanishes.

Next is to follow is Demyx who was about to strum his sitar to create a dome of water for protection but the attack consumes him first. "I guess the show's finally over."

Still, Axel is not spared as his attack also seemingly incinerates him. Meanwhile, flames continue to come out of the ground, heading towards Sora and Riku who is still knocked out-cold.

"Oh…" is all Sora could utter before the flames leap at him and Riku. And then, all he could see is white. "Am I… am I dead?" he asks as the bright white light engulfs him and Riku.

* * *

He could feel a warm sensation on his face. At once, the boy opens his eyes only to find out that he is in a familiar bedroom lying on a bed. He looks to his left where the sun's rays are entering the dim room through the windows.

"That's weird. I had a dream… I thought… I thought I was a goner," the boy mutters to himself as he slowly gets up. He looks at his right and looks at his side to find a silver-haired guy. "Riku? Riku! Riku!" He then starts shaking Riku violently as if the latter is in a coma.

Not long enough, Riku does indeed hold Sora's hands first to keep him from continue to shake the former. "Sora, get a hold of it, will you? What were you thinking? I was just sleeping."

"You… you don't remember?"

Riku raises his eyebrows. "Remember what? I don't remember anything. If you mean last night, we were sleeping."

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just glad you're okay." Sora catches Riku in a hug to which only further confuses the older boy. "He doesn't remember… but it's okay," the brunette says to himself.

"Uhh, Sora? Where'd you get this cut on your cheek?" Riku asks as he sees the wound when Sora presses his face against the silver-haired lad's chest.

"It's nothing. But if you really want to know, it's long story. And you'll probably say that I'm making the whole thing up." Sora turns away from Riku and blushes a bit.

"Try me." Riku grins as he wraps his arms around Sora. "You know that I'll side with your stories no matter how ridiculous they are, right?"

* * *

In another room on Destiny Islands, there sits a girl who has been drawing incessantly on a notebook for nearly two days in a row, furiously erasing and penciling something. Her table is cluttered with several papers, pencils and other art materials. Some of which are just mere doodles of human figures. Others are drawings of the places she imagined in her mind; one of which look a cross between the Castle Oblivion and The Castle That Never Was.

Soon enough, she grabs a nearby box of crayons and starts coloring in a frenzied fashion. Peculiarly, she isn't sweating at all but the grin on her face looks quite disturbing. Within seconds, she is able to put color into her drawing.

The frenzied grin on her face fades and she comes into her senses. "Okay… how long have I been here? I don't even remember going into the drawing room. Weird… anyway…" she picks up her newly-finished drawing and smiles at it in admiration. "This one came out well. I didn't know I had a natural talent in drawing. Well…" She then yawns and stretches her arms. "I think I'm going to have to go get some rest. I feel ridiculously tired right now and I don't even remember doing anything that exhausting."

After putting the said drawing back on the table, he then leaves the room.

On that drawing are four figures, all wearing black cloaks and standing on a flight of stairs. Each one has an evil feel to their grins. The one on the topmost step has pink-hair and is apparently brandishing his scythe. The one that follows him is a blonde female with her hands at her waist. The last two are on the same step and both positioned with their backs to each other.

And if one looks closely at all of them for a minute, he would notice that all four would seem to smile back at him.

* * *

_Well, that's the last bit of my fic. The ending is for you to interpret. If you want to believe that they're still alive and in the girl's mind, then go. If you want to believe that she just happens to randomly draw them, it's okay too. Either way, it's up to you. Do review please. It makes me happy. Thank you for the support! I owe you lots. I'm sorry I can't really reply to the reviews since I'm busy too._


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